••••••••••••••••••••••I  ••••^••••••••••••••••••••^••••••B, ,»„,„,„ 


NICARAGUA  CAN  A I 


THE  GATEWflY  BETWEEN  THE  OCEANS 


PUBLISHED  KY  Ai 

THE  CHAMBER  OF  COMflERCE  OF  SAN  FRANCIS, 

THE  BOARD  OF  TRADE  OF  SAN  FRANCISCO 

THE  CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE  OF  PORTI 

THE  CHAHBER  OF  COMMERCE   OF     S\\    I) 


WILLIAM     L,.     JVIKRRY 


THE   COMMERCIAL- ORGANIZATIONS  WHICH    HAVE    UNI; 
Pr  I;LIC  INTER  ESI,  Ri 
INCREASE  THE  PK 

AND   THE   PROSPERITY  or    IH> 

Wn.i.  Am 
• 

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SAN    FRANCISCO,    CALIFC 

1895 

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KEMTFIELD  PAPE 
THE 


NICARAGUA  CANAL 

^  / 

THE  GATEWAY  BETWEEN  THE  OCEANS 


» 

PUBLISHED  BY  AUTHORITY  OF 

THE  CHAMBER  OF  COMHERCE  OF  SAN  FRANCISCO 
THE  BOARD  OF  TRADE  OF  SAN  FRANCISCO 

THE  CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE  OF  PORTLAND,  OREGON 
THE  CHAHBER  OF  COMMERCE  OF  SAN  DIEGO 


WILLIAM     L;     MERRY,  ife 


THE   COMMERCIAL   ORGANIZATIONS  WHICH    HAVE   UNITED  IN  THIS  PUBLICATION   FOR 

THE  PUBLIC  INTEREST,  RESPECTFULLY  REQUEST  THAT  ALL  WHO  Di- 

TO  INCREASE  THE  PRESTIGE  AND  COMMERCE  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

AND  THE  PROSPERITY  OF   THE  PACIFIC  COAST, 

WILL  AID  IN  GIVING  IT  AS  WIDE  A 

CIRCULATION  AS  POSSIBLE. 


SAN    FRANCISCO,    CALIFORNIA 
1895 


PRESS  OF  CuMMEHClAL  PUB.  CO.,  34  CALIFORNIA  ST. 


l^. 

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Contents. 


i       T    !    NICARAGUA  CANAL.  PAGE. 

Its  Commercial  Necessity  7 

> 

2.  ,          N     ARACIA  CANAL. 

Description  and  History     -  18 

3.  THE  NICAKAUTA  ('ANAL. 

Its  National  Importance  -      30 

4.  THK  PKOIM.KM  OF  CHEAP  TRANSPORTATION. 

34 
5      THE  NICARAGUA  CANAL  AND  THE  RAILROADS. 

-      39 


"The  landmark  to  the  double  tide 
That  purpling  rolls  on  either  side, 
As  if  their  waters  chafed  to  meet 
Vet  pause  and  crouch  beneath  her  feet." 

—Byron,  "T/ie  Siege  of  Corinth.'' 


Library 


Technical    Details. 


Total  Distance  from  Ocean  to  Ocean  -      10!). 4  miles 

Canal  in  Excavation  *26.8      " 

Lengths  of  Basins  21.0      «« 

River  San  Juan  04  5      " 

Lake  Nicaragua  .")<>. 5      " 

Free  Navigation  in  Lake,  River  and  Basins  142.0      " 

Elevation  of  Summit  Level  of  Canal  above  Sea  Level    -  110     feet 

Length  of  Summit  Level  ir>:*.2  miles 

Number  of  Locks      -  0 

Greatest  Lift  of  Lock  45     feet 
Dimensions  of  Locks                                            •    050  feet  long,  80  feet  wide 

Depth  of  Canal    -  30     feet 

Least  Width  at  Bottom  100 

Time  Transit  From  Ocean  to  Ocean  28     hours 

Length  of  Lake  Nicaragua  -  110     miles 

Average  Width  40 

Surface  Area  about  2,000  square  miles 

Area  of  Watershed  of  Lake  "     8,000      " 
*A  remarkable  fact. 


Dedication 

TO  THE  PIONEER  MERCHANTS  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST, 
Who,  over  trackless  plains,  around  the  Cape  of  Storms,  across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama, 

or  through  beautiful  Nicaragua, 
Forced  their  Way  to  and  Laid  the  Foundation  of  our  Pacific  Empire, 

This  Book, 

Issued  by  the  Commercial  Organizations  by  Them  Established, 
Is  Respectfully  Dedicated. 

WILLIAM  L.    MERRY. 


General  I  .  S.  Grant,  North  American  Review. 
February,    iHSi. 

"  In  accordance  with  the  early  and  later  policy  of  the  Government ;  in  obedience 
to  the  often  expressed  will  of  the  American  people  ;  with  a  due  regard  to  our  national 
dignity  and  power  ;  with  a  watchful  care  for  the  safety  and  prosperity  of  our  interests 
and  industries  on  this  Continent ;  and  with  a  determination  to  guard  against  even  the  first 
approach  of  rival  powers,  whether  friendly  or  hostile,  on  these  shores,  /  commend  an 
American  Canal  on  American  soil  to  the  American  people,  and  congratulate  myself 
on  the  fact  that  the  most  careful  explorations  have  been  started,  and  that  the  route 
standing  in  this  attitude  before  the  world,  is  the  one  which  commends  itself  as  &  judicious, 
economical  and  prosperous  work. " 


Report  of  the  Com  mission  appointed  by  the  President  of 
the  United  States  in  1872  "to  Examine  Into,  Make 
Suggestions  and  Report  Upon  the  Subject  of  Iiitcr- 
Oceanie  Ship  Canal  Communication." 

WASHINGTON  CITY,  February  yth,  1876. 
To  ike  President  of  the  United  States : 

The  Commission  appointed  by  you  to  consider  the  subject  of  communication  by 
canal,  between  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans,  across,  over,  or  near  the 
isthmus  connecting  North  and  South  America,  have  the  honor,  after  a  long,  careful, 
and  minute  study  of  the  several  surveys  of  the  various  routes  across  the  continent, 
unanimonsly  to  report : 

That  the  route  known  as  the  "  Nicaragua  Route  "  beginning  on  the  Atlantic  side 
at  or  near  Greytown,  running  by  canal  to  the  San  Juan  River  *  *  *  from  thence 
across  the  lake  and  through  the  valleys  of  the  Rio  del  Medio  and  the  Rio  Grande  to 
what  is  known  as  the  Port  of  Brito,  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  possesses,  both  for  the  con- 
struction and  maintenance  of  a  canal,  greater  advantages  and  offers  fewer  difficulties 
from  engineering,  commercial  and  economic  points  of  view  than  any  of  the  other  routes 
shown  to  be  practicable  by  surveys  sufficiently  in  detail  to  enable  a  judgment  to  be 
formed  of  their  relative  merits,  as  will  be  briefly  presented  in  the  appended  memo- 
randum. We  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  high  respect, 

Your  obedient  servants, 

DANIEL    AMMEN,  U.  S.  N., 
Commodore  and  Chief  of  Bureau  of  Navigation. 

ANDREW  A.   HUMPHREYS, 
Brigadier-General,  Chief  of  Engineers,  U.  S.  A.,  etc. 

C.   P.  PATTERSON, 

Superintendent  U.  S.  Coast  Survey. 


THE     NICARAGUA     CANAL. 

Its  Commercial  Necessity. 

On  the  Pacific  Coast  of  the  United  States  the  commercial  necessity  for  the  prompt 
construction  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal  is  so  obvious  that  it  finds  no  opponents  worthy  of 
consideration.  The  Southern  States  are  almost  equally  interested,  and  two  great  Canal 
Conventions  have  been  held  there  to  promote  it.  The  Eastern  seaboard  States  are 
also  ardent  advocates  of  the  Canal,  and  what  indifference  to  the  beneficent  enterprise 
exists  today,  is  found  in  the  Middle  West,  where  its  immediate  benefits  are  not  so  evi- 
dent to  the  casual  observer,  although  easily  demonstrated  upon  examination.  It  is  a 
notable  fact  however,  that  the  citizens  of  the  great  interior  city  of  Chicago,  renowned 
for  her  enterprise  and  commercial  activity,  are  among  the  most  ardent  advocates  of  the 
Canal,  and  are  fully  cognizant  of  its  advantage  to  them,  when,  by  means  of  a  navigable 
water-way  to  the  Gulf,  to  be  completed  in  1896,  they  shall  have  an  outlet  to  the  Ocean 
very  near  to  the  Gateway  of  the  Pacific. 

The  Pacific  Coast  of  the  United  States  is  isolated  from  our  Eastern  and  from 
European  markets  by  a  continent  over  three  thousand  miles  wide,  with  two  moun- 
tain ranges  over  which  the  locomotive  must  climb,  with  ponderous  loads,  at  heavy 
cost,  and  by  a  sea  voyage  of  nearly  15,000  miles,  around  Cape  Horn.  It  suffers 
from  commercial  isolation,  modified,  however,  in  recent  years  by  the  construction 
of  five  overland  railways  and  by  the  opening  of  Isthmus  routes  at  Panama  and 
Tehuantepec,  while  Guatemala  and  Costa  Rica  are  also  striving  to  obtain  outlets  on 
the  Atlantic  Coast.  The  railways  crossing  the  continental  mountain  chains  to  the 
Atlantic,  are  powerless  for  the  provision  of  cheap  transportation  for  the  bulky  products 
of  our  soil,  although  very  valuable  for  rapid  transportation,  with  which  the  Canal  can 
not  interfere  to  an  extent  which  will  offset  the  benefit  they  will  receive  from  it.  For 
many  years  to  come  we  must  look  to  our  Eastern  sea  coast  and  to  the  continent  of 
Europe  for  our  principal  markets.  Great  changes  are  being  inaugurated  in  Eastern 
Asia  which  may  ultimately  open  for  us  new  markets  there,  but  for  a  long  future,  our 
main  reliance  will  be  upon  Atlantic  markets,  while  our  geographical  position  gives  us 
advantages  in  Eastern  Asiatic  markets,  when  conditions  shall  enable  us  to  develop  them 
more  rapidly.  Under  the  present  conditions  Asiatic  merchandise  which  would  natur- 
ally be  distributed  from  Pacific  Seaports  is,  by  the  railroad  policy  of  competition  with 
the  Suez  Canal  diverted  to  Eastern  cities,  San  Francisco  having  in  this  respect  been 
seriously  discriminated  against.  The  Canal  will  remedy  this.  When  completed,  the 
Suez  Canal  will  no  longer  be  a  factor  to  the  detriment  of  our  Asiatic  import  trade. 
The  Atlantic  Coast  will  be  supplied  through  the  Nicaragua  Canal,  steamships  calling  at 
San  Francisco  and  San  Diego  en  route  to  the  Atlantic,  for  the  reason  that  the  "great 
circle"  or  shortest  ocean  route  from  Eastern  Asiatic  seaports,  passes  within  180  miles 
of  San  Francisco  and  130  miles  of  San  Diego!  As  the  diversion  from  the  great  circle, 
when  steering  for  Pacific  Ports,  would  be  made  at  about  the  iSoth  degree  Meridian,  the 
loss  in  distance  created  thereby  would  be  approximately  one  half  of  the  above  distance, 
in  fact  not  appreciable.  When  thus  calling  at  our  ports,  these  Atlantic  bound  steam- 


8 

ships  loaded  at  Asiatic  ports,  would  partly  duplicate  their  earnings  by  discharging  a  poi 
tion  of  their  cargo  here  and  replacing  it  with  Pacific  Coast  products  for  Atlantic  ports, 
while  coaling.  Thus  the  tide  of  Asiatic  commerce  to  the  Atlantic  would  enter  our  Pacific 
Ports,  while  as  far  Eastward  as  the  Mississippi  River,  our  railways  will  be  able  to  dis- 
tribute Asiatic  merchandise  in  competition  with  Gulf  and  Atlantic  ports,  with  the  ad- 
vantage of  position  in  our  favor.  To  demonstrate  what  I  have  here  asserted,  let  the 
reader  draw  a  flexible  string  tightly,  on  a  large  globe,  between  Yokohama  and  the 
Pacific  terminus  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal,  and  the  argument  will  be  made  plain.  All 

uic  commerce  to  the  Pacific  Coast,  by  steam,  and  in  less  degree  by  sail,  must  pass 
near  Japan,  and  thus  the  argument  applies  to  it  as  an  entirety.  This  branch  of  the 
subject  is  worthy  of  more  time  than  can  at  present  be  given  it,  but  no  one  who  has 
investigated  it,  contests  the  necessary  results  herein  set  forth. 

I  pass  on  to  our  commerce  with  the  Atlantic,  first  Eastward,  for  the  reason  that, 
upon  the  profitable  marketing  of  the  products  of  our  soil  and  industry,  depends  more 
largely  than  any  one  factor,  the  prosperity  of  our  Pacific  Coast.  For  years  to  come  our 
people  will  be  principally  producers.  Manufacturing  except  for  local  purposes,  is  gen- 
erally done  at  a  disadvantage  with  competing  Eastern  and  European  points.  Coal, 
:id  labor  are  all  higher  here  than  there,  and  the  manufacturer  cannot  expect  to 
succeed  in  the  export  trade  unless  he  can  compete  in  price  and  quality  ;  to  expect 
more  than  a  preference  at  the  same  price,  is  more  than  can  be  justly  asked  and  more 
than  will  be  generally  accorded  by  buyers.  I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  un- 
derrating the  importance  of  developing  Pacific  Coast  manufactures  ;  indeed,  no  effort 
should  be  spared  toencourage  them,  asany  community  which  depends  upon  production 
alone  is  at  a  great  disadvantage,  and  we  should,  by  every  means,  develop  the  local 
pride  which  prefers  a  home  manufactured  article,  a  point  wherein  our  people  have  been 
and  are  remiss  to  their  detriment. 

It  is  in  the  elimination  of  about    10,000  miles  on  our  cheap  water  route  for   the 

lucts  of  the  Pacific  Coast  that  the  Nicaragua  Canal  will  the  most  benefit  us.  Ten 
thousand  miles !  Equal  to  twice  across  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  nearly  half  the  circum- 
ference of  the  globe  !  Hereafter  I  shall  prove  how  much  cheaper  than  any  other  com- 
munication is  freight  carried  by  water,  especially  upon  Ocean  routes.  The  evidences 
of  this  are  all  around  us  and  are  universally  admitted.  I  shall  particularize  in  some  of 
the  principal  productive  industries,  but  the  limits  of  this  paper  will  not  permit  the  con- 
sideration of  all  the  benefits  to  our  producers  to  be  secured  by  a  short  water  route  to 
the  Atlantic. 

Our  lumber  trade  has  for  years  been  in  a  very  unsatisfactory  condition.  It  is  an 
industry  with  very  heavy  investments,  and  enormous  possibilities,  and  it  has  not  been 
remunerative  by  reason  of  our  isolation  from  the  great  markets  of  the  World.  The 
output  has  been  greatly  restricted  by  agreement,  and  even  with  this  precaution  there 
has  generally  been  no  profit  in  the  industry.  Our  export  is  limited  to  an  occasional 
cargo  for  Australia,  South  Africa,  South  America,  with  invoices  to  Mexico  and  Central 
America.  Europe  and  our  Eastern  seaboard  is  denuded  of  timber,  while  the  demand 
on  the  Southern  and  Middle  Western  States  has  of  late  years  been  so  heavy  that  those 
sections  are  being  rapidly  stripped  of  timber.  On  the  Pacific  Coast,  there  is  an 

NOTI    -Steam-hips  < >n   route  from   Yokohama  to  the  Atlantic,   via  Canal  will    lose   only  91 
kimts  l.y  calling  at  San  Francisco,  and  from  Hongkong  only  1>0  knots.     The  reader's  attention  is 

Called    tO   the   tahlp  of  HUt.-Ulr.  .   MM    r>n,ro  2« 


10 


I 


enormous  supply,  the  undisturbed  growth  of  ages,  and  the  completion  of  the  Canal 
will  inaugurate  a  tremendous  development  of  this  trade.  It  will  enhance  values  of 
timber  lands  far  more  than  the  entire  cost  of  the  Canal,  and  employ  a  great  amount  of 
shipping,  a  large  part  of  which  will  be  documented  under  the  American  flag,  thus 
creating  activity  in  American  shipyards  and  iron  industries.  The  demand  for  oui 
redwood  and  Oregon  pine  will  exceed  all  anticipations  as  they  have  no  equals  foi 
special  purposes,  in  the  world's  supply  of  lumber.  These  facts  are  so  thoroughly  under- 
stood by  our  lumber  merchants  that  they  have  for  years  been  ardent  supporters  of  the 
Nicaragua  Canal. 

Our  wheat  industry  is  in  a  lamentable  condition,  and  generally  unremunerative  for 
export.  Indeed,  it  has,  so  far  as  export  is  concerned,  been  a  gamble  with  the  forces  of 
nature.  A  five  months  voyage  around  the  Cape  has  made  it  impossible  to  do  more 
than  hope  for  a  successful  shipment,  since  no  man  can  correctly  estimate  the  world's 
supply  during  the  ensuing  season,  months  ahead,  and  it  is  a  noticeable  fact  that  all 
the  heaviest  San  Francisco  wheat  deals  have  been  financial  failures. 

India  through  the  Suez  Canal,  Russia  near   by,  and  Argentine  within  twenty-five 
days  of  European  markets,  control  the  trade  against  us,  both  in  time  and  distance  ;  they 
"  have  the  call"  and  we   come  in  at  the  tail  end  !     Consider  the  magic  change  of 
open  canal  !     New  York  in  eighteen  days,  and  Europe  in  twenty-five  days,  easy  steam- 
ing, will  place  our  wheat  dealers  in  fair  competition  with  all  the  world  !    It  will 
longer  be  necessary   to  charter  and    load  an   entire   ship.     Cargo   steamers  will   carry 
invoices  direct  from  producers  if  they  wish  and  the  gambling  element  in  our  present 
wheat  shipments  will  be  eliminated.     A  quick  delivery  will  make  it  practically  a  cash 
trade,  on  a  safe  basis  of  small  profits  and  a  large  volume  of  business,  done  mostly  by 
steamers,  bringing  European   passengers  and   merchandise   westward.     The  saving  or 
wheat  freights  would  have  already  furnished  money  enough  to  build  the  Canal,  althougl 
of  recent  years  freights  via  the  Cape  have  often  been  low,  but  they  can   never  be  k» 
enough  by  that  15,000  mile  route  to  offset  the  disadvantages  alluded  to. 

Our  fruit  industry  will  receive  a  great  impetus  when  the  Canal  is  open  to  it.  In 
the  transportation  of  fresh  fruit  time  is  an  important  factor,  and  by  rail  freights  must 
always  be  comparatively  high.  It  is  encouraging  that  improved  methods  tend  to  reduce 
the  cost  of  transportation,  and  in  this  industry  railways  can  better  compete  with  the 
Canal  than  in  the  others  so  far  named,  for  the  demand  is  largely  in  the  interior  of  the 
Continent,  and  to  such  points  as  a  comparatively  high  freight  can  be  paid,  leaving  a 
profit  to  the  producer. 

But  the  modern  refrigerator,  as  applied  to  steamships,  has  solved  the  question  of 
cheap  transportation  of  perishable  products  by  sea.  Thousand  of  tons  of  fresh  beef, 
mutton,  etc.,  are  now  always  en  route  from  Australia  and  New  Zealand  to  Europe  in 
refrigerator  steamships.  Meat  products  require  a  temperature  of  22°  to  26°  Farh.  for 
safe  keeping,  while  fruits  require  36°  to  38°  Farh.  for  preservation  ;  a  dry 
atmosphere  being  needed  in  both  cases.  Partial  cargoes  of  fresh  fruit  are  now  bting 
successfully  shipped  from  Cape  Colony  to  Europe,  across  the  Equator,  under  conditions 
much  less  favorable  than  they  would  be  via  the  Nicaragua  Canal. 

When  our  horticulturists  have  the  markets  of  Northern  Europe  open  to  them  at  a 
low  cost,  in  25  days,  by  refrigerator  steamers,  the  fear  of  an  overproduction  may  be 
safely  dismissed.  Our  fruits,  large  and  small,  and  our  vegetables  are  luxuries  in  North- 


I 

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by 

1 


II 


ern  Europe,  with  a  market  limited  only  by  the  cost  to  consumers.     Our  production 
so  rapidly  increasing  that  by  the  time  the  Canal  can  be  opened  it  will  be  needed.    Thai 
this  is  fully  appreciated  is  proven  by  the  ardent  support  given  the  Canal   by  all  our 
horticulturists,  the  energetic  people  of  Southern  California  being  especially  pronoun . 
in  this  demand  for  a  short  waterway  to  the  Atlantic. 

The  trade  with  Japan  in  raw  cotton  is  comparatively  new  and  rapidly  increasing, 
as  the  manufacture  of  cotton  fabrics  in  that  Empire  is  developing  immensely.  Japan 
can  purchase  a  short  staple  cotton  in  India,  but  must  place  her  main  dependence 
upon  the  American  staple.  This  will  go  to  her  through  the  Canal,  furnishing  return 
cargoes  to  steamships  carrying  Asiatic  goods  to  our  Gulf  Ports.  This  trade  has  an 
immense  future,  for  it  means  the  supply  of  47,000,000  people  with  cheap  clothing  and 
other  cotton  fabrics. 

In  no  part  of  the  world  are  coal  and  iron  found  in  greater  proximity  than  in 
Alabama,  and  that  section  of  the  Union  can  supply  the  Pacific  Coast  and  Pacific 
Islands  with  great  facility  through  the  Canal.  This  will  be  a  great  benefit  to  us,  until 
these  industries  can  be  developed  here,  All  the  steam  coal  needed  on  the  Canal  and 
at  the  Naval  Station  on  Lake  Nicaragua  can  be  thus  supplied  with  an  excellent  article 
at  very  low  prices,  towed  there  in  barges  from  Mobile. 

The  fisheries  of  the  Northwest  Pacific  Coast  and  Islands  have  a  great  future  The 
discoveries  of  fishing  banks  already  made  by  the  United  States  steamship  "Albatross"' 
prove  this  assertion  and  the  exploration  has  only  been  started.  Although  overland 
railways  will  largely  deal  with  this  industry,  supplying  the  interior  of  the  Continent 
by  the  service  of  refrigerator  cars,  the  Canal  will  offer  a  cheap  highway  for  fishing 
vessels  to  and  from  the  Atlantic  coasts,  carrying  homeward  their  own  catch,  using. 
San  Francisco  or  other  Pacific  Coast  ports  as  points  of  departure  for  the  homeward 
voyage 

The  Pacific  Coast  needs  a  desirable  immigration.  This  the  railways  have  been 
unable  to  develop;  it  has  always  cost  too  much  to  get  here,  and  Eastern  localities  have  con- 
sequently received  general  preference.  While  our  people  have  a  conviction  that  our  immi- 
gration laws  are  much  too  lax  and  that  a  bad  citizen  in  Europe  makes  a  worse  citizen  here, 
the  fact  remains  that  the  Canal  will  be  largely  used  by  European  and  Atlantic  Coast  immi- 
grants who  will  settle  up  our  idle  lands,  open  our  mines  and  create  new  industries  ;. 
largely  a  consuming  class.  And  our  position  warrants  us  in  expecting  that  we  shall 
receive  the  best  class  of  settlers,  because  it  will  still  cost  more  to  get  here  from  Europe 
than  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  Our  lands  will  gradually  be  subdivided  and  we  shall  no 
longer  see  the  abnormal  spectacle  of  a  magnificent  valley  like  that  of  the  Sacramento 
decreasing  in  population,  and  in  small  land  holdings.  The  Canal  will  create  an  urgent 
demand  for  American  built  shipping  and  for  seamen  to  man  it.  It  is  in  fact,  admitted 
that  the  tonnage  via  Canal  in  the  American  coastwise  trade  will  be  entirely  inadequate 
to  meet  the  demand,  when  the  Canal  is  open  and  until  it  can  be  constructed  in  our 
shipyards.  While  steamships  will  gradually  obtain  preference,  the  use  of  sailing  ships 
via  Nicaragua  Canal,  unlike  the  Suez  Canal,  is  entirely  practicable.  This  maritime 
development  will  make  San  Francisco  a  great  seaport  and  restore  to  it  the  position  it 
occupied  in  its  early  history,  but  on  a  greatly  enlarged  scale.  The  same  remark  applies 
to  other  Pacific  Coast  ports  in  a  degree  corresponding  with  the  facilities  they  offer  and 
the  support  they  receive  from  their  tributary  territory. 


13 

I  might  go  on  with  illustrations  but  other  branches  of  the  subject  demand  con- 
sideration, and  they  are  not  needed  by  the  intelligent  merchant.  It  would  indeed  be  a 
difficult,  if  not  an  impossible  task,  to  predict  all  the  changes  which  the  construction  of 
the  canal  will  inaugurate.  It  needs  the  prescience  of  a  statesman;  the  commercial 
acumen  of  a  merchant,  and  the  technical  skill  of  a  navigator,  to  correctly  estimate  the 
effect  of  eliminating  a  navigation  of  10,000  miles  for  all  the  maritime  nations  of  the 
World.  Such  a  stupendous  change  in  the  geography  of  the  globe  must  create  radical 
changes,  but  of  this  we  may  rest  assured;  they  will  be  changes  for  the  advantage  of 
human  progress,  for  commerce  recognizes  no  nationality,  and,  more  than  any  other 
agency,  tends  to  unite  the  human  race  in  the  great  brotherhood  of  mutual  interest. 
For  us,  the  Canal  means  the  reverse  of  the  Pioneer  condition  of  commercial  isolation. 
Already  partly  destroyed  by  other  agencies,  we  are  halting  in  the  march  of  progress; 
an  arrested  development  which  will  be  terminated  by  the  completion  of  the  Nicaragua 
Canal.  The  Canal  means  development  and  progress,  so  far  as  can  now  be  judged, 
without  injury  to  any  existing  interest  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 

The  tolls  which  commerce  can  afford  to  pay  for  the  use  of  the  Canal  have  been  a 
proper  question  of  inquiry.  Utilizing  the  locks  by  electric  lights  at  night,  the  Canal 
can  pass  20,240,000  tons  annually,  which  can  be  doubled  by  duplicating  the  locks. 
The  Suez  Canal  has  passed  over  9,000,000  tons  annually,  producing  a  revenue  of 
15  @  19  per  cent.  In  the  estimate  of  tonnage  that  will  use  the  Nicaragua  Canal,  the 
coastwise  commerce  of  the  United  States  must  always  prove  an  important  and  increas- 
ing factor.  Already  an  immense  commerce,  it  has  no  practical  limit  until  the  Great 
Republic  shall  have  been  closely  populated.  No  other  inter-oceanic  canal  can  compete 
for  this  immense  carrying  trade,  while  Great  Britain  will  make  use  of  both  Nicaragua 
and  Suez  Canals  for  her  colonial  trade. 

A  careful  estimate  of  the  tonnage  within  the  radius  of  attraction  by  the  Canal  in 
1891,  made  it  8,159,150  tons,  but  the  annual  increase  is  a  matter  of  opinion,  and  has 
therefore  been  placed  at  the  low  estimate  of  6^  per  cent,  approximately  for  the  inter- 
vening period  until  completion,  in  five  years.  In  this  connection  I  may  state  that, 
while  the  time  allowed  for  construction  has  been  fixed  at  five  years,  it  may  be  largely 
reduced  by  the  use  of  electric  lighting,  possibly  to  three  years  from  the  active  inaugur- 
ation of  work,  the  estimate  made  having  been  based  on  a  ten  hours  per  day  labor.  It 
is  a  noticeable  fact  that  in  1894,  of  the  steamships  passing  through  the  Suez  Canal,  95 
per  cent,  continued  their  passage  at  night  by  use  of  the  electric  lights,  navigating  in 
safety;  a  more  difficult  problem  than  the  use  of  electric  lights  for  construction  work. 
We  have  assurances  of  8,730,000  tons  for  the  Nicaragua  Canal  by  the  time  it  can  be 
completed;  possibly  this  is  an  under  estimate.  This,  at  $1.85  per  ton,  (the  charge 
now  made  at  Suez)  will  produce  $16,150,500  annual  revenue.  The  cost  of  mainten- 
ance and  improvements  may  be  safely  estimated  $1,500,000  annually,  leaving  $14,- 
650,500  net  revenue,  on  a  cost  which  should  not  exceed  $100,000,000  and  which  may 
not  be  over  $80,000,000,  if  built  by  the  aid  of  the  Government  credit.  Like  the  Suez 
Canal,  it  will  be  one  of  the  best  paying  properties  in  the  World. 

The  Canal  will  make  large  earnings  also  on  through  passengers,  not  only  on  Euro- 
pean immigrants  westward,  but  on  tourists.  The  route  will  be  a  romantic  one,  through 
a  delightful  trade  wind  climate.  There  is  no  finer  scenery  in  the  world  ;  no  more 
attractive  combination  of  land  and  water,  than  the  Nicaragua  Lakes  and  the  River  San 


14 

Juan,  both  well  remembered  by  many  old  Californians.  Travellers  will  always  desire 
to  pass  through  the  Canal  at  least  once,  and,  as  on  a  low  rate  speed,  the  trip  from  San 
Francisco  to  New  York  or  return  can  be  made  in  fifteen  days,  it  will  attract  great  travel. 

The  American  continent  extending  into  the  Southern  Ocean  over  21  degrees  of 
latitude  more  than  Africa,  the  navigation  around  Cape  Horn  is  over  2594  miles  longer 
than  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  much  more  dangerous.  The  distances  saved 
by  the  canal  at  Nicaragua  are  generally  much  greater  than  at  Suez,  a  fact  which  will 
tend  to  augment  its  revenue.  The  Suez  Canal  diverted  an  already  established  commerce 
without  much  prospect  of  additional  development,  while  the  Nicaragua  Canal  will  de- 
velop a  commerce  already  ot  large  volume,  but  the  tributary  nations  are  largely  in  their 
infancy  of  development,  and  with  a  certainty  of  enormous  increase  in  wealth,  population 
and  commerce. 

There  is  another  source  of  revenue  not  heretofore  alluded  to  in  public  discussion 
of  the  subject,  although  of  great  importance.  I  refer  to  the  local  commerce  of  Ni- 
caragua. The  Nicaragua  Canal,  besides  being  a  great  inter-oceanic  highway,  is  an  in- 
ternal channel  of  communication  and  commerce,  for  a  Country  with  great  resources,  and 
in  this  respect  is  unique:  Suez  passes  through  a  desert.  Immediately  that  the  Canal  is 
open  the  magnificent  region  surrounding  the  Nicaragua  Lakes  will  teem  with  a  new  life 
and  a  development  of  its  great  resources.  It  is  one  of  the  most  productive  Countries 
on  the  globe,  producing  all  the  tropical  and  semi-tropical  products,  largely  timbered 
with  cabinet  hard  woods,  rich  in  mines  of  gold  and  silver,  and  blessed  with  a  splendid 
climate,  as  will  hereafter  be  proven.  I  do  not  hazard  much  in  the  assertion  that, 
within  ten  years  after  the  opening  of  the  Canal,  this  local  traffic  will  produce  enough 
revenue  to  pay  all  operating  expenses,  and  the  nation  that  builds  the  Canal  will  have 
the  greatest  part  of  this  trade. 

The  diversion  of  commerce  from  Pacific  Coast  ports  by  means  of  the  Canal  has  been 
occasionally  stated  as  against  its  utility,  but  on  careful  examination  there  will  be  found 
no  reason  to  apprehend  this  to  any  extent.  As  before  stated,  so  far  from  Asiatic  com- 
merce being  diverted,  it  will  enter  our  portals,  and  we  shall  have  the  advantage  of 
location  in  distribution  eastward  overland,  until  it  meets  the  same  class  of  merchandise 
coining  up  the  Mississippi  Valley,  from  the  Canal.  Australian  Commerce  to  Europe 
and  our  Atlantic  Coast  will  certainly  go  via  Canal,  but  this  will  work  no  injury  to  us, 
for  now  it  goes  either  via  Suez  Canal  or  Cape  of  Good  hope,  while  our  location  should 
enable  us  to  develope  a  large  direct  trade  with  Australasia.  Hawaiian  commerce 
should,  under  natural  conditions  always  be  controlled  by  American  Pacific  Ports,  as 
the  interchange  of  products  is  natural  and  mutually  beneficial.  Occasional  cargoes 
will  go  from  the  Hawaiian  Islands  through  the  Canal,  to  Atlantic  Ports,  but  this  is  now 
the  case  via  Cape  Horn,  several  sugar  cargoes  going  that  way  this  season.  But  this 
\\ill  be  abnormal  under  any  condition  which  can  now  be  foreseen. 

The  commerce  of  Central  America,  except  in  regard  to  such  demand  as  we  have 
•for  the  products  of  that  section,  is  constantly  striving  for  an  Atlantic  outlet.  The 
Tehuantepec  Railway  the  Guatemala  Northern  Railway  to  Livingston,  and  the  Costa 
Rica  Railway  to  Port  Limon,  (both  on  the  Atlantic)  and  the  Panama  Railway,  all  facil- 
itate the  movement  of  Central  American  products  to  the  Atlantic.  Under  no  circum- 
stances can  we  expect  to  attract  this  European  and  Atlantic  Coast  demand  for  Central 
American  products  to  our  Pacific  Coasts  ports;  they  can  be  transported  cheaper  by  the 
•routes  named  at  this  time  and  cheaper  still  through  the  Canal. 


'5 

But  the  Canal  will  rapidly  develop  the  resources  and  increase  the  population  of 
all  Central  America,  Nicaragua  taking  precedence  in  this  particular  as  it  is  to  be  the 
first  scene  of  a  new  activity.  With  these  improved  conditions  will  come  an  increase  of 
commerce  with  United  States  Pacific  Ports,  and  our  Pacific  Coast  railway  systems  will 
find  it  to  their  advantage  to  distribute  Eastward,  the  products  of  Central  America  in 
competition  with  Gulf  Ports  distributing  Northward,  or  Atlantic  Coast  Ports  Westward. 
The  advantage  of  location  will  be  with  us,  and  we  shall  have  to  pay  no  Canal  toll,  while 
the  increasing  wealth  and  population  of  Central  America  will  take  from  us  in  vastly 


MARKET    SCKXK    AT    (iKAXADA    CITY,    ON    LAKK    Ni(  AKA«,I   A. 


increased  quantity  the  products  we  are  now  sending  there  ;  flour,  canned  fruits  and 
meats,  California  wines,  and  many  other  articles  now  being  shipped  there  by  every 
steamer.  And  Central  American  products  will  be  marketed  here  in  greater  quantity  as 
a  merchandise  basis  of  exchange.  A  diversion  of  commerce  from  our  Pacific  Coast 
Ports  has  never  been  mentioned  in  any  other  connection.  But  I  may  state  here,  that 
it  is  an  erroneous  view  of  the  Canal  to  consider  it  solely  for  our  benefit,  and  such  a 
position,  besides  being  false  in  fact,  would  defeat  its  construction.  In  a  general  way 
I  may  state  that  commercially,  the  Canal  will  benefit  first,  the  Pacific  Coast  of  North 


America  ;  second,  the  Gulf  Coast  of  the  United  States  ;  third,  the  East  Coast  of  the 
United  States  ;  fourth,  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  great  middle  West  of  the 
United  States  ;  fifth,  the  West  Coast  of  South  America  and  the  Pacific  Islands.  Other 
parts  of  the  World  would  be  benefited  also,  in  less  degree,  and  the  commerce  of  all 
maritime  nations  will  be  greatly  facilitated  thereby.  Its  advantages,  otherwise  than 
commercial  I  shall  illustrate  hereafter. 

To  the  shipping  merchant,  seaman  and  stevedore  the  advantages  of  carrying  mer- 
chandise without  "  breaking  bulk"  are  very  well  known.  It  is  the  rough  handling  of 
packages  in  transshipment,  and  their  exposure  to  a  tropical,  often  also  to  a  moisture 
laden  climate,  that  has  proven  the  principal  deterrent  to  the  popular  use  of  the  Isthmus 
transits  for  freight.  The  additional  expense  is  also  to  be  considered,  but  it  is  doubtful 
if  the  prior  consideration  is  not  the  most  important.  The  Canal  will  make  this 
unnecessary,  and  the  merchandise  placed  on  board  will  remain  untouched  until 
delivery  at  destination.  Wheat  and  other  grains  can  be  shipped  in  bulk  as  is  now  done 
on  the  Atlantic,  thus  saving  the  onerous  expense  of  sacking,  which  must  be  borne  by 
the  producer,  amounting  to  about  one  dollar  per  ton.  It  may  be  safely  asserted  that 
approximately  ninety  per  cent,  of  claims  for  damage  on  freight  are  due  to  handling  and 
ten  per  cent,  to  bad  stowage  and  sea-damage,  if  total  losses  be  excluded. 

It  is  no  small  honor  to  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  to  the  Board  of  Trade  of 
San  Francisco  that  these  two  organizations  are  the  pioneer  promoters  of  the  Nicaragua 
Canal,  from  a  commercial  stand  point.  Illustrious  statesmen  have  pointed  out  its  ad- 
vantages to  our  Country,  and  military  experts  have  demonstrated  its  necessity  to  the 
national  safety  of  the  Great  Republic,  but  our  merchants  have  been  the  first  to  present 
it  to  the  commercial  world  as  the  great  project  of  the  age.  In  1880  I  was  daily  requested 
to  explain  wherein  the  Canal  would  benefit  us  ;  in  1895  1  am  asked  on  all  sides  what 
are  the  prospects  for  its  completion  and  it  is  universally  recognized  as  worthy  of  the 
support  of  all  who  wish  well  to  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  of  all  patriotic  Americans  who 
desire  to  see  their  country  holding  its  place  and  fulfilling  its  destiny  among  the  great 
nations  of  the  earth. 


THE      NICARAGUA 

Description  and  History. 

The  Republic  of  Nicaragua  lies  between  Honduras  and  Salvador  on  the  north  and 
Costa  Rica  on  the  south.  It  has  a  coast  line  of  250  miles  on  the  Atlantic  and  185  miles 
on  the  Pacific  Ocean.  From  ocean  to  ocean  it  is  200  miles  wide  on  its  northern  boun- 
dary and  120  miles  wide  on  its  southern  boundary.  It  extends  from  latitude  iou  to  i5u 
north.  Its  area  is  49,000  square  miles,  (about  three  times  the  area  of  Switzerland)  and 
its  estimated  population  is  450,000  souls.  The  eastern  coast  was  first  sighted  by 
Columbus  in  1 503.  It  was  first  visited  and  explored  by  the  Spanish  military  adventurer, 
r.il  Cionzales  Davila  in  1522.  In  1821  the  five  Central  American  Republics,  including 
Nicaragua,  became  independent  of  Spain,  and  formed  a  confederacy  which  was  dis- 
solved in  1839,  since  which  they  have  been  independent.  The  Republic  derives  its 
name  from  Nicaraoz.  native  chief  found  on  the  shores  of  the  great  lake  by  the  Spanish 
discoverer,  who  called  the  lake  Nicarao-agua,  from  which  came  the  abbreviation  Nic- 
aragua. 

From  Cape  Horn  to  the  Arctic  Ocean  a  continuous  mountain  chain  rears  its  peaks 
between  the  oceans,  under  various  names,  but  always  the  same  longest  of  all  mountain 
systems  in  the  world,  But  in  Nicaragua  occurs  a  freak  of  nature.  The  mountain  range 
is  broken  and  decreased  in  elevation.  Two  great  lakes  Nicaragua  and  Managua,  de- 
press the  continental  back  bone  and  furnish  the  lowest  level  between  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  Oceans,  from  Cape  Horn  to  the  Arctic  Ocean;  152  6-12  feet  above  mean  sea 
level.  The  next  lowest  is  at  Panama  295  feet,  and  Tehuantepec  has  an  elevation  of 
855  feet.  Lake  Nicaragua  is  no  miles  long  and  40  miles  wide.  Standing  on  its 
western  shore,  its  waves  beat  at  the  traveller's  feet  with  the  cadence  of  an  ocean  surf 
and  the  opposite  shore  is  out  of  sight,  It  is  from  12  to  240  feet  deep  and  free  from 
hidden  dangers,  except  that  its  waters  are  infested  with  sharks,  having  probably  come 
from  the  Carribbean  sea  and  gradually  became  habituated  to  the  new  environment,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  sharks  in  the  lakes  of  the  Feejee  Islands. 

Lake  Managua  is  thirty  miles  long  and  fifteen  wide,  of  an  irregular  shape  and 
twenty-four  feet  higher  than  Lake  Nicaragua.  It  is  proposed  to  unite  these  two  lakes 
by  a  canal  with  one  lock  to  overcome  the  difference  in  elevation.  This  work  is  included 
in  the  Canal  Company's  contract  with  the  Government.  These  two  great  lakes  and  the 
consequent  low  summit  level  between  the  oceans,  give  to  Nicaragua  an  especially  fine 
climate — it  may  be  called  a  marine  tropical  climate.  The  trade  winds  from  the  Atlantic 
blow,  with  rare  exceptions,  across  the  republic,  minimizing  malarial  influences  and 
lowering  the  thermometer,  so  that  at  night  one  needs  a  blanket  to  sleep  comfortably 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  lakes. 

Among  the  many  advantages  possessed  by  this  favored  land,  there  is  one  which  far 
exceeds  in  value  her  resources  of  mine,  field  and  forest.  Standing  midway  between  the 
northern  and  southern  extremities  of  the  continents,  the  barrier  there  presented  to  direct 
communication  between  the  two  great  oceans,  and  the  countries  bordering  upon  them  is, 
Bsbefore  stated,  the  lowest  that  exists  anywhere  on  the  American  Continent.  The  import 


'9 

of  this  great  fact  to  the  commercial  world  remains  to  be  considered.     We  merely  remark 
that  Nicaragua  is  on  the  highway  of  the  world's  future  commerce,  and  in  a  military  point  of 
view  far  exceeds  Gibraltar  in  importance.     It  is,  in  fact,  the  key  between  the  Athnt: 
the  Pacific  —  the  path  of  empire  is  through  its  gateway  for  the  nation  that  holds  the  key  ! 

The  Republic  is  divided  into  thirteen  Departments,  each  governed  by  a  Prefect. 
Otherwise  the  form  of  government  is  similar  to  that  of  the  United  States;  there  is  entire 
liberty  of  religious  belief  and  much  attention  is  paid  to  public  education.  There  are 
several  small  cities  in  the  Republic;  Leon  with  30,000  inhabitants;  Granadi  \\ith 
15,000  ;  Chinandega  with  12,000  ;  Managua,  the  capital  city,  with  10,000  ;  Masaya 
with  8,000  ;  Rivas,  four  miles  from  the  Canal,  Western  Division,  with  7,000  ;  Mata- 
galpa,  (in  the  famous  coffee  district)  with  4,000  ;  and  La  Libertad  with  4,000.  Besides 
these  there  are  several  smaller  seaport  towns;  Corintol  lately  the  scene  of  British 
military  occupation  and  evacuation  ;  Brito  and  San  Juan  del  Sur  on  the  Pacific,  and 
San  Juan  del  ATorte  and  Bluefields  on  the  Atlantic,  as  well  as  others  of  minor  import- 
ance. There  are  few  good  roads  in  the  country,  transportation  being  slow  and  expensive, 
except  by  water  and  on  the  two  excellent  railways,  which  are  well  managed,  as  well  as 
owned,  by  the  Government.  The  Republic  was  primarily  settled  on  the  Pacific  Coast, 
but  lately  the  industry  of  banana  and  cocoanut  growing  has  so  increased  on  the  so- 
called  Mosquito  Coast,  that  two  regular  lines  of  weekly  steamers  run  to  New  Orleans  and 
twice  a  month  to  Colon,  and  the  Eastern  coast  is  being  rapidly  settled.  Between  the 
Atlantic  and  Lake  Nicaragua  there  are  rich  mineral  districts  with  gold  and  silver  mines 
which  have  been  worked  for  many  years,  two  of  them  being  owned  in  London.  This 
section  of  the  Republic  is  also  largely  devoted  to  cattle  raising,  and  the  Republic  pro- 
duces all  the  products  of  a  tropical  and  semi-tropical  climate. 

The  availability  of  the  Nicaragua  route  for  an  inter-oceanic  highway  was  indicated 
as  early  as  1550  by  the  Spanish  explorer,  Antonio  Galvao.  Since  1825  the  subject  has 
been  repeatedly  presented  to  the  Governments  of  Nicaragua  and  the  United  States.  In 
1844  Don  Francisco  Castellan,  a  citizen  of  Nicaragua,  visited  France,  and  the  project 
was  by  him  called  to  the  attention  of  Louis  Napoleon,  who  published  a  pamphlet  on  the 
subject,  but  no  active  efforts  followed.  In  1849  Cornelius  Vanderbilt  and  associates 
obtained  a  concession  for  a  ship  canal,  and  a  remarkably  correct  survey  was  made  for 
them  by  Colonel  Childs  of  Philadelphia,  which  was  pronounced  feasible  by  United 
States  Government  and  English  engineers. 

In  1852  a  series  of  explorations  were  commenced,  covering  the  whole  isthmus, 
partly  on  private  account,  but  mostly  under  instructions  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment. In  1872-73  complete  surveys  of  Nicaragua  and  Panama  routes  were  made  by 
Commander  Lull,  United  States  Navy,  with  Mr.  A.  G.  Menocal  as  the  Chief  Engineer. 
The  result  of  their  instrumental  surveys  was  the  condemnation  of  the  Panama  route  and 
the  official  approval  of  the  Nicaragua  route  for  a  lock  canal,  using  the  great  lake  as  its 
summit  level.  Thair  surveys  demonstrated  the  possibility  of  a  lock  canal  at  Panama 
with  fourteen  feet  more  elevation  than  at  Nicaragua,  and  at  greater  cost.  It  entirely  con- 
demned the  Panama  route  for  a  sea  level  canal,  as  afterwards  attempted  by  the  French. 
General  Grant,  himself  a  civil  engineer  of  no  mean  pretensions,  wrote  in  the  North 
American  Review  of  February,  1881,  that  if  practicable  at  all,  the  Panama  Canal  would 
cost  over  $400,000,000.  He  is  also  on  record  as  asserting  that  every  dollar  put  into 
the  Panama  Canal  would  be  lost  to  the  investors. 


21 

In  May  1879  Lesseps  called  together  the  International  Canal  Congress  at  Paris 
for  the  assumed  purpose  of  consultation  as  to  the. route  to  be  adopted.  The  United 
States  Government  appointed  Rear  Admiral  Daniel  Ammen,  United  States  Navy,  and 
Mr.  A.  G.  Menocal,  C.  E.  as  our  delegates.  It  appearing  that  the  Congress  was  con- 
trolled in  the  interest  of  parties  who  had  acquired  a  concession  for  the  Panama  route, 
and  that  a  fair  discussion  and  vote  was  not  wanted,  our  delegates  declined  to  vote.  It 
subsequently  appeared  that  a  French  syndicate,  including  Count  de  Lesseps  and 
Gustave  Blanchet,  C.  E.  had  made  a  prior  application  to  the  Nicaragua  Government 
for  a  concession,  and  failing  there,  had  taken  up  the  Wyse-Turr  concession  from  the 
Columbian  Government  for  a  canal  at  Panama,  subject  to  the  prior  rights  of  the  Panama 
Railroad  Company,  and  these  concessionaires  had  offered  Lesseps'  inducements  to  join 
them  in  promoting  the  enterprise. 

The  failure  of  Lesseps'  application  to  the  Nicaragua  Government  recalls  an 
interesting  incident.  At  that  time  Fernando  Guzman  was  President  of  Nicaragua. 
Educated  in  the  United  States  and  France,  he  was  a  wise  and  patriotic  statesman. 
The  French  Canal  bill  was  introduced  simultaneously  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  and 
Senate.  It  passed  the  former,  and  was  lost  by  one  vote  in  the  latter  A  motion  to 
reconsider  was  made  and  the  Senate  adjourned.  President  Guzman,  when  informed 
of  the  result,  sent  for  the  Senator  who  moved  for  reconsideration  and,  while  disclaim- 
ing any  right  to  interfere  with  the  action  of  the  Senate,  informed  him  that,  unless  he 
was  confident  of  enough  votes  to  pass  the  bill  over  the  veto,  it  would  be  time  wasted. 
The  Senator  expressed  suprise  and  asked  for  a  reason,  as  he  deemed  the  Canal  a  great 
benefit  to  Nicaragua.  Guzman  answered  by  asking  him  "  if  he  remembered  the  French 
military  occupation  of  Mexico  and  their  attempt  to  destroy  the  Republic  there," 
remarking  also  that,  if  they  built  the  Canal  they  would  ultimately  control  the  country, 
and  treat  Nicaragua  as  they  had  treated  Mexico  ;  that  the  Americans  "  want  the  Canal 
and  will  not  destroy  our  Government "  and  if  the  French  did  not  build  it,  the  American 
people  or  Government  would.  This  failure  of  the  French  to  obtain  a  Canal  concession 
from  Nicaragua  was  sedulously  concealed,  while  the  Panama  Canal  was  being  floated,  and 
this  incident  answers  the  oft  repeated  inquiry  why  did  not  Lesseps  go  to  Nicaragua  if  it 
is  so  much  the  best  route  for  a  ship  canal  ? 

In  1880  a  "Provisional  Canal  Society"  was  formed  at  New  York  including  Gen. 
Grant,  Gen.  McLellan,  Admiral  Ammen,  Frederick  Billings  and  others.  In  May  1880 
the  Society  obtained  a  Canal  concession  from  the  Nicaraguan  Government  and  in  Dec. 
1 88 1  a  bill  was  introduced  by  Senator  Miller  of  California,  and  Mr.  Kasson  of  Iowa 
(formerly  our  Minister  to  Austria)  for  an  inter-oceanic  canal  at  Nicaragua  under  control 
of  the  United  States  Government.  This  bill  was  bitterly  opposed  by  the  Panama  Canal 
Company,  by  Captain  Eads  with  his  "ship  railroad"  scheme,  and  by  the  overland 
railways.  Meanwhile  the  Administration  of  President  Arthur  was  secretly  negotiating 
a  canal  treaty  with  Nicaragua  for  construction  on  Government  account,  with  a  joint 
sovereignty  over  the  Canal  line  and  the  right  of  fortifying  terminals.  The  so  called  Za- 
vala-Frelinghuysen  treaty  was  ratified  by  the  Nicaraguan  Senate,  but  was  withdrawn 
by  President  Cleveland  from  the  United  States  Senate,  the  reasons  assigned  being  a  fear 
of  foreign  complications  and  the  departure  from  precedents  in  legislation.  Had  this 
treaty  been  ratified  the  Canal  would  have  been  completed  in  1887.  The  friends  of  the 
enterprise  were  not  disheartened,  but  their  attempt  to  construct  with  American  private 


22 

capital  were  frustrated  mainly  by  the  failure  of  the  Marine  Bank  of  New  York,  which 
also  ruined  General  Grant  financially. 

But  the  demand  for  an  inter-oceanic  canal  was  steadily  increasing,  as  it  has  sub- 
sequently increased,  until  it  has  become  a  national  demand,  recognized  by  both  great 
political  parties,  and  the  facility  of  construction  at  Nicaragua  had  been  demonstrated  by 
repeated  surveys  with  instruments  of  precision.  But  this  concession  lapsed,  and  in  1886 
was  formed  the  "Nicaragua  Canal  Association"  and  a  new  concession  was  obtained 
from  Nicaragua  and  Costa  Rica,  a  payment  of  $100,000  gold  being  made  as  an  evidence 
of  good  faith.  Surveying  was  resumed  in  1887  under  the  auspices  of  the  new  association, 
for  the  purpose  of  developing  every  possible  improvement  in  location,  and  borings  of  the 
canal  excavations  to  its  bottom,  were  made  at  every  thousand  feet.  The  labors  of  this 
survey  may  be  illustrated  by  the  fact  that,  although  the  canal  in  excavation  is  only  26^ 
miles,  not  less  than  4000  miles  of  survey  were  made,  including  cross  sections,  embank- 
ments locks,  construction  railways,  breakwaters,  etc. 

The  Nicaragua  Canal  Construction  Company  was  incorporated  September  2ist, 
1887,  under  the  Presidency  of  Francis  A.  Stout,  Esq.,  subsequently  succeeded  by  A. 
C.  Cheney,  Esq.,  and  by  Hon.  Warner  Miller.  The  Maritime  Canal  Company  of 
Nicaragua  was  incorporated  by  act  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  approved 
February  2oth,  1889,  by  President  Cleveland.  Hon.  Hiram  Hitchcock  and  Thomas 
B.  Atkins  Esq.,  have  been  respectively,  President  and  Secretary  of  this  Company  since 
its  organization.  This  Company  made  a  contract  with  the  Construction  Company  for 
construction,  and  the  work  was  proceeded  with  until  the  world  wide  financial  panic  of 
1893,  when  the  Construction  Company  suspended,  and  its  affairs  having  been  liquidated 
by  a  Recei/er,  the  contract  for  construction  has  been  awarded  to  "T7ie  Nicaragua  Com- 
pany" of  which  John  R.  Bartlett  Esq.  is  President.  Since  the  present  concession  from 
Nicaragua  and  Costa  Rica,  bills  for  construction  with  the  aid  of  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  have  been  introduced  in  the  5ist  and  52d  Congress,  but  neither  came  to  a 
vote.  At  the  second  session  of  the  53d  Congress,  under  President  Cleveland,  a  bill  was 
introduced,  which,  with  slight  amendments  passed  the  Senate  and  on  January  25th, 
1895,  by  a  vote  of  31  to  21  it  was  sent  to  the  House  for  concurrence,  without  favorable 
result.  The  introduction  of  these  bills  was  not  obtained  by  the  promoters  of  the  Canal, 
but  originated  in  the  Senate  Committee,  as  stated  in  its  report.  Meanwhile  Congress 
has  authorized  the  appointment  of  a  technical  commission  of  Civil  Engineers  to  again 
examine  the  Canal  line  and  to  make  a  report  to  the  President.  This  Commission  has 
completed  its  examination  and  has  recently  returned  to  the  United  States. 

Turning  from  this  tedious  history  of  delays  procured  largely  by  interests  adverse 
to  the  public  welfare,  a  brief  description  of  the  Canal,  on  which  four  and  a  half  mill- 
ions have  been  already  expended,  is  in  order. 

Description. 


The  Nicaragua  Canal  may  be  briefly  described  as  a  summit  level  of  navigation  in 
fresh  water,  153^4  miles  long,  no  feet  above  the  sea  level,  reaching  within  3^ 
miles  of  the  Pacific  and  12^  miles  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  The  total  length  of 
navigation  is  169)4  miles;  there  will  three  lift  locks  at  each  end  of  the  summit 


24 

level.  It  may  be  properly  divided  into  four  divisions  ;  the  Eastern-,  the  San  Francisco; 
the  River  and  Lake,  and  the  Western. 

The  Eastern  division  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  San  Francisco  basin,  18%  miles, 
contains  three  Eastern  locks.  Three  miles  beyond  the  upper  lock  is  the  heaviest  cut 
on  the  work,  2C'/IO  miles  long,  through  rock  averaging  141  feet  to  canal  bottom,  and 
requiring  four  years  work  if  daylight  alone  be  used.  This  practically  measures  the 
period  necessary  to  complete  the  canal,  as  the  work  at  all  other  points  can  be  com- 
pleted in  less  time  and  simultaneously.  It  is  probable  that  by  the  use  of  electric 
lighting,  the  work  on  the  Canal  can  be  greatly  expedited,  but  under  ordinary  conditions 
it  has  been  conservatively  estimated  as  needing  five  years  for  completion  by  ten  hours 
per  day  labor,  allowing  for  delays.  The  rock  from  the  Eastern  divide  above  alluded 
to,  is  to  be  utilized  in  the  break  water  at  San  Juan  del  Norte  (Greytown);  at  the 
Ochoa  dam  and  to  line  the  embankments  in  the  San  Francisco  division,  which  extends 
from  the  divide  to  Ochoa,  12^  miles.  This  division  utilizes  the  depressions  of  four 
small  streams,  which  are  used  for  canal  purposes  by  the  construction  of  retaining  em- 
bankments, thus  saving  excavation,  and  creating  a  navigable  channel  much  wider  and 
deeper  than  the  excavated  canal.  At  the  western  end  of  this  division  we  come  to  the 
Ochoa  dam  across  the  River  San  Juan,  1900  feet  long  and  70  feet  high,  (maximum) 
raising  the  surface  of  the  river  56  feet,  or,  to  the  lake  level,  less  four  feet,  which  allows 
about  three  quarters  of  an  inch  per  mile  for  a  slow  current  from  the  lake  over  the  dam, 
probably  about  three  quarters  of  a  mile  per  hour. 

Lake  and  River  Division,  121.04  miles  The  River  San  Juan  discharges  about 
20,000  cubic  feet  water  per  second.  It  is  a  river  of  clear,  fresh  water  200  to  400 
yards  wide — a  larger  stream  than  the  Sacramento  in  ordinary  stages,  but  unlike  it  in 
never  being  flooded  by  excessive  high  water,  the  lake  regulating  its  flow  of  water. 
by  the  Ochoa  dam,  slack  water  navigation  is  obtained  to  the  lake  with  4^  feet  ex- 
cavation for  the  24  miles  nearest  the  lake.  The  width  of  this  inundated  river  navigation 
will  vary  with  the  conformation  of  the  land,  from  the  present  width  to  half  a  mile 
or  more.  Some  of  the  bends  must  be  cut  off  to  give  a  radius  easy  of  navigation  for 
the  largest  ships.  There  will  be  ample  space  in  nearly  all  this  division  for  ships 
to  pass  each  other  safely  at  a  speed  of  eight  miles  per  hour,  while  in  the  lake  full 
speed  can  be  maintained.  Dredging  in  soft  mud  or  silt  deposit  will  be  necessary  at  the 
Eastern  end  of  the  lake  for  14  miles,  averaging  about  10  feet.  The  lake  navigation  is 
56*4  miles.  Dredging  will  be  necessary  for  1400  feet  at  its  western  shore. 

Western  Division — Lake  to  Pacific  Ocean  17.04  miles.  Of  this  distance  n^ 
miles  will  be  in  excavation  and  5.54  miles  in  the  Tola  Basin,  a  depression  of  4000 
acres  which  is  flooded  30  to  70  ft.  by  a  retaining  dam  70  ft.  high  and  1800  ft.  long. 
The  use  of  depressions  on  the  canal  line  is  only  possible  on  a  surface  canal,  and  has 
been  made  use  of  to  great  advantage  by  the  engineers  on  the  Nicaragua  surveys. 

The  Port  of  Brito  on  the  Pacific  has  to  be  created,  but  this  can  be  done  without 
risk  and  at  moderate  cost.  It  somewhat  resembles  Port  Harford  on  the  California 
Coast,  except  that  the  landing  is  on  low  ground,  easily  excavated.  A  breakwater 
900  feet  long  will  be  extended  from  the  headland  and  a  shorter  from  and  perpendicular 
to  the  beach  enclosing  a  harbor  of  about  100  acres,  which,  with  the  enlarged  prism  of 
the  canal  contiguous  therjto,  will  create  all  the  harbor  needed,  especially  as  the  splendid 
harbor  in  the  Tola  basin  will  be  only  $y*  miles  distant,  and  being  fresh  water  will  be 


25 

generally  preferred.       I  may  here  remark  that  this  advantage  of  afresh  water 
cannot  be  overestimated,  both  in  the  cleaning  of  animal  and  vegetable  growths  on  the 
bottoms  of  iron  and  steel  ships ;  in  the  abundant  supply  for  boilers  and  general  use, 
and  in  the  prevention  of  damage  by  the  toredo-navalis  and  limnoria,  which  so  rapidly 
destroy  timber,  especially  in  tropical  sea  water. 

The  Port  of  San  Juan  del  Norte  (or  Greytown)  at  the  Atlantic  terminus  was  a  fine 
harbor  thirty-five  years  ago,  but  has  been  damaged  by  silt  deposit  from  the  Rio  San 
Juan,  and  by  drifting  sands  of  the  ocean  beach.  The  plans  for  the  restoration  of  this 
harbor  involves  a  cost  of  $2,550,667.  A  breakwater  about  3000  feet  long  has  to  be 
constructed  to  protect  the  entrance  from  the  drifting  sands  outside,  and  the  channel  to  lee- 
ward thereof  dredged  to  a  depth  of  30  feet  minimum.  About  1000  feet  of  this  jetty 
has  been  already  constructed,  and  the  success  which  has  attended  the  work  thus  far 
gives  assurance  of  the  ultimate  results  anticipated  when  the  seaward  end  reaches  the 
65^  fathom  curve.  The  restoration  of  this  harbor  was  the  most  difficult  problem  of 
the  Canal,  there  being  nothing  else  in  the  work  difficult  of  execution,  the  problem  be- 
ing merely  one  of  finances. 

The  Port  of  San  Juan  del  Norte  is  often  miscalled  Greytown,  a  name  distasteful 
to  Nicaraguans,  having  been  first  used  when  the  British  Government  seized  the  Port 
and  placed  there  Sir  George  Grey  as  military  Governor.  The  eastern  seaboard  of 
Nicaragua  was  evacuated  by  Great  Britain  on  the  ratification  cf  the  Clayton-Bulwer 
Treaty,  which  our  Government  contends  is  now  practically  discarded,  having  been  re- 
peatedly violated  by  Great  Britain  ;  but  it  has  never  been  formally  abrogated. 

The  capacity  of  the  Canal  will  be  20,440,000  tons  which  can  be  doubled  by  dupli- 
cating the  locks.  The  Suez  Canal  has  passed  in  1894  8,059,106  tons,  although  this 
was  considerably  exceeded  in  1891. 

The  amount  received  from  tolls  in  1894  was  $14,770,081  ;  receipts  from  passengers 
not  stated;  rate  of  toll  averaged  exactly  $1.83  per  ton.  The  Nicaragua  Canal  will 
open  in  1900  with  an  assured  tonnage  of  8,730,000  tons,  which  will  rapidly  increase. 
The  time  of  passing  through  the  Canal  is  placed  at  twenty-eight  hours  for  steamers  or 
sailing  vessels  in  tow,  including  lockages. 

The  fact  that  the  Nicaragua  Canal  has  the  great  advantage  of  being  operated  with 
fresh  water  has  already  been  alluded  to.  The  destructive  work  of  the  "  teredo  navalis " 
and  of  the  "limnoria"  will  be  unknown,  and  all  wooden  structures  under  water  will 
become  comparatively  permanent  improvements,  whereas  in  tropical  sea  water  their 
life  would  not  be  over  two  to  three  years  Of  greater  importance  still  is  the  advantage 
to  iron  shipping.  The  rapidity  with  which  the  bottoms  of  iron  and  steel  ships  foul  in 
sea  water  is  well  known.  Indeed,  since  we  have  commenced  the  construction  of  an  iron 
and  steel  navy,  the  question  of  docking  has  become  one  of  importance  and  expense.  An 
iron  ship  should  be  docked  every  six  months  if  her  bottom  is  to  be  kept  in  good  order; 
otherwise  not  only  is  more  fuel  consumed  and  her  speed  greatly  retarded,  but  the  bottom 
plates  become  "  pitted  "  and  if  too  long  foul,  ruined.  It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  marine 
growths  on  a  ship's  bottom  when  taken  into  fresh  water  at  once  die,  and  when  the  ship 
moves  drop  off.  The  inner  harbors  of  the  Canal  and  the  Lake  will  become  favorite  sta- 
tions for  the  cleaning  of  ships'  bottoms  and  a  saving  can  thereby  be  made  in  the  expense 
of  docking  often  equal  to  the  tolls  charged  for  the  use  of  the  Canal.  It  will  also  be  no 


26 


small  advantage  that  naval  vessels  awaiting  orders  on  the  Canal  will  always  be  preparec 
for  sea  duty  with  clean  bottoms  and  boilers  full  of  fresh  water. 

The  cost  of  the  Canal  has  been  very  carefully  estimated  by  Engineer  Menocal,  and 
by  two  Boards  of  Consulting  Engineers,  one  in  the  United  States  and  one  in  England. 
Menocal  makes  a  cost  of  $65,084,176  exclusive  of  bankers'  commissions,  discounts  on 
securities  and  interest  during  construction.  The  English  Board  exceeded  this  by  six 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  a  remarkable  concurrence.  The  American  Board  of  Super- 
vising Engineers  out  of  an  abundant  caution  took  Menocal's  estimates,  and  where  they 
were  found  higher  than  their  own  retained  them,  but  rejecting  them  when  lower  than 
their  own,  and  substituting  their  own  figures.  In  this  way  they  raised  the  cost  to 
$87,799,570,  and  conclude  their  report  with  the  statement  that  the  enterprise  is  full 
of  promise.  All  these  estimates  include  a  25  per  cent,  contingency.  As  a  commercial 
problem  I  have  always  preferred  to  anticipate  necessary  a  cost  of  $100,000,000,  which 
will  make  the  Canal  fully  as  profitable  as  Suez,  which  is  the  best  large  investment  in 
the  world. 

That  great  work  the  Chicago  Drainage  and  Ship  Canal  which  will  unite  Chicago 
to  the  Mississippi  at  Alton,  is  being  built  at  a  cost  very  much  less  than  the  Nicaragua 
estimates.  The  improvements  made  since  Menocal's  estimates  of  1872,  in  excavating 
machinery  are  very  striking.  I  append  a  comparison  of  his  prices  for  work  compared 
with  the  prices  now  being  paid  at  Chicago: 


NICAKAUI   A     I>Ti: MATES— 1872. 

Per  cubic  yard. 

20  to  30  cts. 

K:irtli   excavation 40  to  50  Cts. 

$1.25  to  $1.50 

subaqueous $5.00 

Kmk-iiikinents,  earth  from  cuts 20  to  30  cts. 

rock  from  cuts 40  to  50  cts. 

earth  from  cuts 70  cts. 

rock  from  cuts $1.5o 

Masonry  concrete  and  stone $0  to  $10 


CHICAGO   DRAINAGE   CANAL — 1895. 

Per  cubic  yard. 

Dredging 5A  to  8  cts. 

Earth  excavation  on  bank 19  cts. 

Rock  "         74  cts. 

"         minimum 59  cts. 

Earth    excavation  carried  away    as  far    as  ne- 
cessary av 30  cts. 

Rock,  subaqueous §1 .75 


The  Chicago  Drainage  Canal  has  forty  miles  in  excavation,  and  one  hundred  and 
twenty-one  feet  lockage  elevation.  The  Nicaragua  Canal  has  twenty-six  and  three- 
quarter  miles  in  excavation  and  one  hundred  and  ten  feet  lockage  elevation.  The  re- 
markable decrease  in  the  cost  of  Chicago  work  shows  the  advance  in  the  science  of  Canal 
excavation  by  machinery  in  25  years,  and  is  a  happy  augury  for  the  Nicaragua  Canal, 
although  there  must  be  less  difference  than  above  indicated,  for  at  Chicago  every  con- 
venience is  at  hand  for  cheap  work  whereas  these  conveniences  must  be  exported  to  Nic- 
aragua. But  it  proves  conclusively  that  the  cost  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal  should  not  ex- 
ceed the  estimates,  and  may  be  less  than  Menocal's  figures. 

The  splendid  profession  of  the  Civil  Engineer  finds  in  the  Nicaragua  Canal  a  source 
of  gratification  and  delight.  I  have  conversed  with  very  many  practical  men  who  have 
passed  over  the  route,  and  when  they  have  been  shown  the  skill  with  which  the  project 
has  been  developed,  the  laborious  surveys  made,  the  borings  of  canal  prism  to  its  bot- 
tom and  other  details,  their  admiration  has  been  unbounded.  As  remarked  by  Senator 
Morgan  of  Alabama,  "the  most  fervid  imagination  is  surprised  and  captured  by  this 
splendid  reality."  The  reader  will  find  pleasure  in  comparing  the  length  and  altitude  of 
the  instrumental  surveys  made  by  the  United  States  Government  across  the  various 
American  inter-oceanic  routes. 


RANCH    Iim-SK    NKAK    CANAL    LINK.       COCOA    PAI.M    AM-    BREAD 


, 

Name. 
Tehusntepec 

Length  miles. 
150 

169 

3. 

Panama.  .  .              .... 

42 

•I. 

San    Bias  

30 

Cale<l<>ni:i-Tiivra  

87 

6. 

Vltrate-Tuvra   

115 

7 

Altrate-Truando 

125 

8. 

Altnte-Napipi.. 

180 

Altitude  feet. 

755 

]52 

295 

1145 

1008 

800 

950 


Reconnaisance  surveys  were  made  at  three  other  routes  on  the  Darien  Isthmus.  It 
will  be  noted  that  Nicaragua  has  by  far  the  lowest  elevation  and  is  the  only  fresh  water 
canal.  The  San  Bias  route  is  the  shortest  between  the  oceans  ;  in  fact  the  tide  waters 
of  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic  there  approach  each  other  within  twenty- three  miles,  but  a 
mountain  barrier  stands  in  the  way,  with  a  very  bad  climate  to  aid  it  in  forbidding  ca- 
nalazation  at  that  point. 

The  cross  section  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal  is  5712  square  feet  against  3700  square 
feet  at  Suez. 

The  locks  are  now  arranged  for  a  length  of  650  feet,  depth  30  feet,  width  80  feet. 
The  lifts  are  as  follows  : 

Lock  No.  i,  Eastern  Division,  31  feet  ;  Lock  No.  4,  Western  Division,  42.5  feet  ; 
Lock  No.  2,  Eastern  Division,  30  feet;  Lock  No.  5,  Western  Division,  42.5  feet  ; 
Lock  No.  3,  Eastern  Division,  45  feet ;  Lock  No.  6,  Western  Division,  variable. 

Lock  No.  6,  Western  Division,  has  a  variable  lift,  owing  to  the  rise  and  fall  of  tide  at 
the  Pacific  terminus  of  the  Canal,  but  averages  25  feet  lift,  the  lake  level  being  main- 
tained at  no  feet.  The  apparent  discrepancy  in  lift  of  locks  on  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
Division  is  caused  by  the  allowance  for  regulated  flow  of  the  San  Juan  River  from  the 
Lake  to  the  Ochoa  dam.  Forty-Jive  minutes  are  allowed  for  each  lockage,  the  ex- 
perience at  the  Sault  St.  Marie  Canal  having  proven  this  sufficient.  The  supply  of 
lockage  water  is,  under  the  utmost  capacity  of  the  Canal,  over  ten  times  the  demand 
that  can  be  made  upon  it — the  magnificent  inland  sea  of  Nicaragua  draining  a  water 
shed  of  over  8000  square  miles,  with  an  average  rain  fall  of  55  inches  per  annum,  and 
its  area  of  1,400  square  miles,  completely  regulating  the  outflow  through  the  outlet  to 
the  Atlantic — the  San  Juan  River.  A  guard  gate  will  be  placed  on  the  Western 
Division  near  the  Lake,  which  can  be  closed  when  necessary  to  empty  the  locks  near 
the  Pacific,  and  a  similar  gate  may  be  needed  above  the  locks  on  Eastern  Division. 

In  the  study  of  this  question  there  is  at  first  a  preference  for  a  sea  level  canal  over 
a  lock  canal,  and  indeed  were  it  possible  to  imitate  nature  and  thus  construct  a  passage 
way  at  the  American  Isthmus,  at  a  cost  or  within  the  time  that  is  within  compre- 
hension, it  would  be  preferable.  At  Suez  it  was  feasible  because  of  the  simplicity  of 
the  conditions — a  cut  through  the  sand,  with  a  summit  85  feet  above  sea  level,  and 
practically  without  a  rainfall.  But,  at  the  American  Isthmus  the  important  question 
of  drainage  has  to  be  considered  as  a  controlling  factor,  the  rainfall  being  heavy.  A 
sea  level  canal  is  necessarily  the  drainage  ditch  of  the  entire  rictnage,  while  a  lock, 
surface  canal,  does  not  disturb  in  an  appreciable  degree  the  natural  drainage  of  the  sur- 
rounding territory.  At  the  Panama  Isthmus  it  has  proven,  as  was  foreseen  by  the 
United  States  Government  Engineers,  an  insurmountable  obstacle,  and,  while  the  rain- 


29 

fall  there  is  very  heavy  at  times,  260  inches  annually  at  Colon  and  about  85  inches  at 
the  city  of  Panama  and  with  the  Chagres  River  flood  waters  an  unmanageable  factor, 
it  is  a  question  if  the  necessary  lockage  water  can  be  provided.  There  is,  in  fact,  far 

too  much  water,  but  it  is  unmanageable. 

It  is  the  unique  existence  of  that  magnificent  inland  sea  at  Nicaragua,  that  solves 
this  question — an  abundance  of  water  under  control,  at  all  time*.  Without  it  no  Ameri- 
can Isthmus  Canal  would  be  possible,  unless  by  a  lock  Canal  at  Panama  under 
disadvantageous  conditions  or  by  tunneling  one  of  the  Darien  routes,  and  for  a  ship 
canal  tunneling  has  been  condemned  by  all  engineers,  as  being  unsafe  and  in  every 
way  unacceptable  to  the  commercial  world  that  will  pay  for  the  use  of  the  Canal. 

As  above  stated,  it  is  the  great  lake,  and  its  outlet  to  the  Atlantic,  with  the  low 
summit  level  that  makes  the  Nicaragua  Canal  a  commercial  possibility.  How  much 
nature  has  there  done  to  aid  the  Engineer  is  proven  by  the  fact  that  in  tlic  natural  con- 
dition, a  six  hundred  ton  steamer  can  leave  the  Atlantic  and  approach  within  121/^ 
miles  of  the  Pacific!  Is  it  surprising  that,  for  ages  the  Nicaragua  route  has  been 
considered  the  Gateway  between  the  Oceans,  and  that  the  great  nations  look  upon  it  with 
envious  eyes  ?  It  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  keys  of  the  World" s  commerce  and  a  military 
position  of  unique  importance.  The  mind  of  the  investigator  is  entranced  with  the 
splendid  reality.  Nature  invites  the  capitalist  and  civil  engineer  to  fully  solve  the 
great  problem  by  the  partial  solution  already  offered. 


THE      NICARAGUA      CAXAI,. 

Its  National  Importance. 


•y  fully 


The  political  conditions  connected  with  the  inter-oceanic  canal  have  been  very  fully 
discussed  by  the  United  States  Senate  in  executive  session,  and  occasionally  a  fairly 
informed  editorial  writer  has  published  his  opinions  thereon,  but  the  general  public  has 
very  little  idea  of  the  subject.  When  President  Monroe  in  December  1823 
enunciated  the  great  national  principle  now  bearing  his  name  as  the  "  Monroe 
Doctrine,"  he  referred  to  military  and  naval  projects  by  the  European  Powers  form- 
ing the  "  Holy  Alliance."  It  was  well  understood  then  that  European  Powers  intended 
an  aggressive  policy  against  the  infant  American  Republics.  There  was  a  stalwart 
Americanism  in  those  days  and  patriotism  was  not  considered  a  vulgarity  by  Anglo- 
maniacs  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  Our  Government  informed  European  Powers  that 
"  we  could  not  riew  any  interposition  for  the  purpose  of  controlling,  in  any  manner, 
the  destinies  of  independent  American  powers,  in  any  other  light  than  as  a  manifesta- 
tion of  an  unfriendly  disposition  toward  the  United  States."  The  language  is  plain 
enough,  and  the  sentiment  of  the  American  people  on  this  question  is  well  understood. 
It  took  a  practical  shape  when  Sheridan,  at  the  conclusion  of  our  civil  war,  was 
ordered  to  the  Rio  Grande  with  100,000  veteran  troops,  and  Louis  Napoleon  diplo- 
matically notified  that  it  would  be  agreeable  to  us  to  have  him  withdraw  his  French 
troops  from  Mexico,  in  which  reasonable  request  he  acquiesced.  This  practical  appli- 
cation of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  was  a  necessity  to  our  national  safety  and  a  precedent 
which  established  it.  It  has  proven  the  falsity  of  the  assertion  that  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
is  an  intangible  theory  in  our  foreign  policy,  the  world  knows  what  it  means,  but 
aggressive  powers,  wanting  more  territory,  will  occasionally  try  our  self  respect  and  our 
patriotism  by  the  application  of  test  cases,  always  prepared  to  recede  if  we  are  firm  in 
our  application  of  the  famous  national  policy,  born  from  the  necessities  of  our  position 
when  the  nation  was  comparatively  weak,  but  full  of  sterling  patriotism. 

What  reason  have  European  powers  to  complain  of  our  policy  in  this  respect  ? 
If  we  assume  that  it  is  our  national  duty  to  control  the  Nicaragua  Canal,  is  not 
our  position  as  reasonable  as  the  control  of  the  Suez  Canal  by  Great  Britain  ? 
Would  that  power  submit  to  our  interference  in  the  management  of  the  Suez  Canal 
or  in  its  political  and  military  control  ?  If  that  is  her  highway  to  India,  the  Nicaragua 
Canal  is  our  highway  between  integral  portions  of  our  country,  and,  in  fact,  as  well 
expressed  by  President  Hayes,  "  a  part  of  our  coast  line."  In  1884  President  Arthur 
and  Secretary  of  State  Frelinghtiysen  negotiated  the  Zavala-Frelinghuysen  Treaty  with 
Nicaragua,  giving  our  Government  the  right  of  joint  sovereignty  over  two  and  a  half 
miles  on  each  side  of  the  Canal,  with  the  right  to  fortify  the  terminals — in  fact,  per- 
mitting us  to  build  and  own  the  work  jointly  with  Nicaragua,  binding  us  to  its  military 
protection.  This  treaty  was  withdrawn  from  our  Senate  by  the  successor  of  Mr. 
Arthur,  the  present  Chief  Executive,  for  reasons  which  were  entitled  to  respect,  and 
this  necessitated  construction  by  a  company  formed  for  the  purpose,  and  possessed  of 
concessions  from  Nicaragua  and  Costa  Rica,  the  rights  of  navigation  of  a  part  of  the 


1 


NATIVE    HOUSES   NEAR   SAN   JUAN    RIVER — CAMP   OF    U.    .-.    SIKVKVIN RP8. 


Rio  San  Juan  entitling  the  latter  Republic  to  an  interest  in  the  Canal.  Personally  I 
much  regret  that  the  Canal  was  not  completed  tinder  the  Zavala-Frelinghuysen  treaty, 
but  fully  appreciating  President  Cleveland's  reasons,  I  can  see  how  through  the  inter- 
vention of  a  Company,  the  great  desideratum  of  government  control  can  be  attained  by 
such  a  use  of  the  national  credit  as  will  secure  this  to  the  Government,  and  avoid  the 
objectionable  features  of  the  Treaty. 

The  Nicaragua  Canal  will  be  the  great  highway  of  our  increasing  commerce  be 
tween  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Coasts,  and  no  American  statesman  has  ever  admitted 
the  possibility  of  permitting  the  control  of  our  isthmus  transit  to  any  European  powers 
remanding  our  Navy  and  American  commerce  to  the  15,000  miles  voyage  around  the 
Cape,  at  the  option  of  the  nation  controlling  the  Canal.  Lake  Nicaragua  occupies  a 
position  unique  in  its  importance  to  American  interests.  Gibraltar,  or  the  Dardanelles 
cannot  compare  with  it  in  the  value  of  its  military  position.  Upon  its  bosom  naval 
fleets  may  float  in  fresh  water,  with  clean  bottoms,  in  a  delightful  climate,  surrounded 
by  a  territory  producing  supplies  for  fleets  and  armies.  Connected  by  telegraphic  cable 
with  Washington,  such  a  fleet  will  be  effective  in  a  few  days  at  Samoa  and  the  Hawaiian 
Islands  and  on  the  Pacific  Coast  of  America,  and  at  Jamaica,  Hayti,  Cuba,  the  Wind- 
ward Islands  and  the  Spanish  Main  on  the  Atlantic.  The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  has 
stated  in  his  report  to  the  Government  that  it  "  will  double  the  effective  fora  of  the 
United  States  Navy."  This  alone  would  pay  for  the  Canal  as  a  national  necessity. 


32 

In  the  eventualities  which  may  be  near  at  hand  in  Eastern  Asia  we  cannot  afford  longer 
play  "  the  dog  in  the  manger"  with  so  important  a  work. 

Nicaragua  is  a  sparsely  settled  country,  with  great  but  undeveloped  resources,  a 
healthful  climate,  and  internal  waterways  insuring  cheap  transportation.  It  will  be- 
come the  theater  of  great  industrial  and  commercial  activity,  on  the  highway  of  the 
World's  commerce.  The  nation  that  supplies  the  funds  to  build  the  Canal  will  mostly 
control  its  policy  and  commerce.  The  expenditure  of  the  large  sums  needed  for  con- 
struction, the  employment  of  skilled  labor  largely  from  the  nation  supplying  the  money, 
and  of  all  available  native  labor  as  well,  and  the  resultant  influences  which  always  ac- 
company capital,  are  sufficient  reasons  for  the  national  control  alluded  to. 

As  a  result  of  construction  as  a  private  enterprise  and  with  foreign  capital,  we  have 
the  incontestable  right  of  foreign  military  protection  to  foreign  property,  and  still,  our 
national  policy  is  so  adverse  to  such  protection,  that  its  enforcement  at  the  Canal 
would  be  almost  equivalent  to  a  declaration  of  war.  At  the  Panama  Isthmus  we  have 
repeatedly  landed  United  States  forces  to  protect  the  Panama  Railroad.  In  fact,  dur- 
ing the  first  administration  of  Mr.  Cleveland  an  expeditionary  force  of  United  States 
Marines  was  sent  to  occupy  the  Isthmus  until  peace  and  protection  to  life  and  property 
were  assured.  It  was  very  creditably  ordered  and  managed,  fulfilling  our  treaty  obliga- 
tion with  Colombia  and  our  duty  to  the  world.  If  we  do  not  control  the  Canal  by 
construction,  we  must  either  subsequently  buy  or  fight  for  it  with  the  alternative  of 
'  *  taking  a  back  seat "  among  the  nations  of  the  world  ! 

The  political  history  of  the  Suez  Canal  should  be  very  instructive  to  Americans. 
DC  Lesseps  had  less  excavation  than  political  obstruction,  for  Great  Britain  endeavored 
to  prevent  its  completion  by  every  possible  means.  But,  whatever  the  demerits  of  the 
Great  Frenchman,  no  one  will  deny  his  diplomatic  ability  and  his  persistency.  These 
characteristics,  with  the  aid  of  the  Khedive  and  of  the  Third  Napoleon,  finally  triumphed 
over  all  obstacles.  When  the  new  route  to  India  had  been  opened  it  became  a  necessity 
to  Great  Britain,  and  Disraeli  secretly  bought  its  control  for  his  Country.  It  was  the 
masterstroke  of  that  great  statesman;  the  most  brilliant  move  he  ever  made,  and  will 
always  endear  his  memory  to  the  English  heart.  When  it  became  the  military  policy 
of  (ircat  Britain  to  close  the  Suez  Canal,  her  ironclads  filled  the  waterway  and  locked 
it  to  the  navigation  of  the  world.  No  one  now  expects  that  England  will  abandon  the 
vantage  ground  obtained  in  Lower  Egypt  and  the  control  of  her  latest  route  to  India ; 
never,  unless  under  the  stress  of  a  military  force  which  must  conquer  the  greatest  naval 
power  of  the  world.  As  well  abandon  Gibraltar,  Aden  Malta  or  Esquimault:  British 
troops  are  there  to  stay,  notwithstanding  French  protests  ! 

With  this  history  before  our  people,  have  we  not  a  national  duty  to  perform  in  the 
securing  of  control  at  Nicaragua?  If  we  neglect  this  manifest  duty  can  we  justly 
blame  England  if  she  secures  her  own  interests,  to  our  detriment?  If  our  great  com- 
petitor for  the  world's  commerce  considers  that  military  conditions  permit  her  occupy- 
ing and  closing  the  Suez  Canal,  why  not  the  Nicaragua  Canal?  In  one  case  she  had 
France,  a  far  more  important  military  power  than  the  United  States,  as  an  objector  ;  in 
the  other  case  she  might  have  the  Great  Republic — great  in  resources,  but  weak  in  its 
military  power,  except  to  resist  invasion.  Diplomatic  objections  are  not  of  much  value 
against  rifled  ordnance,  and  there  is  no  greater  lie  than  the  old  assertion  that  "  the  pen 


33 

is  mightier  than  the  sword"  since  nations  are  always   preparing  to  put  away  the  <|iiill 
and  draw  the  weapon,  especially  the  leading  European  Powers  ! 

The   Pacific  North  West  Coast   has    a  much  milder  climate  than  the  North 
Atlantic  littoral.     The   warm  waters  of  the  great  Japan  current — "///<?  A  .  0" — 

wash  its  shores  in  high  northern  latitudes  and  flow  southerly  near  the  Oast  line 
to  the  tropics.  That  brilliant  statesman,  William  H.  Seward,  with  a  pres< 
which  immortalizes  his  name,  knew  the  value  of  Alaska,  when  he  bought  it  from 
Russia,  and  he  realized  that  the  Pacific  Ocean  is  to  be  "  the  scene  of  man's  greatest 
achievements."  It  needs  the  Canal  to  inaugurate  this  brilliant  future,  when  Alaska 
with  her  great  wealth  of  mines,  timber  and  fisheries  shall  develop  her  importance  to 
the  world. 

Further  south  and  nearer  the  Nicaragua  Canal  we  find  more  population  and  com- 
merce, but  the  same  necessity  for  a  cheap  waterway  to  the  Atlantic.  The  great  States 
of  Washington  and  Oregon,  with  their  immense  resources,  halt  in  their  onward  march, 
and\uffer  an  arrested  development,  which  no  railways  can  terminate.  Their  fields 
and  forests,  their  fisheries  and  mines,  are  boundless  sources  of  wealth,  compara- 
tively dormant,  and  awaiting  the  magic  result  of  cheap  water  transportation  by  a  short 
route  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Isolation  is  the  curse  of  our  commercial  position ,  and  we 
appeal  to  our  countrymen  in  the  older  sections  of  the  Republic  to  aid  us  in  the  solution 
of  the  question  by  the  enactment  of  such  legislation  as  will  secure  the  Nicaragua  Canal 
under  the  control  of  our  Government  and  for  the  benefit  of  its  people. 

The  Pacific  Coast  appeals  to  the  patriotism  of  all  Americans  !  By  journeys  over 
trackless  plains,  and  around  the  Cape  of  Storms,  our  Pioneers  opened  the  way  and  laid 
the  foundation  for  our  Pacific  Empire.  Before  they  all  go  over  to  the  silent  majority 
they  ask  that  onr  Eastern  friends  will  aid  them,  and  at  the  same  time  benefit  our  whole 
country  and  the  commercial  world,  by  securing  the  speedy  construction  of  the  Nicaragua 
Canal. 

To  our  legislators  in  Congress  we  can  urge  the  Canal  on  the  broad  ground  of  the 
national  welfare  and  national  prestige.  We  ask  them  to  discard  party  prejudice  and  the 
fear  of  a  want  of  precedent  :  the  conditions  are  unique  and  tJie  duty  plain.  To  such  of 
our  countrymen  as  fear  the  Canal  in  competition  with  other  transportation  interests,  we 
respectfully  beg  a  fair  consideration  of  the  question  in  a  liberal  sense,  and  a  careful 
reading  of  the  subsequent  article  "  The  Nicaragua  Canal  and  the  Railroads.''  The 
Canal,  we  are  fully  confident,  will  injure  no  vested  interest,  and  should  receive  their 
good  will  and  active  aid.  And  we  also  suggest  to  them  that  they  are  powerless  to  pre- 
vent its  construction — at  most  they  can  only  succeed  in  placing  a  foreign  control  over 
our  coast  line  waterway,  to  the  detriment  of  our  country,  by  opposing  "  an  Aw< 
Canal  under  American  control." 


The  Problem  of  Cheap  Transportation. 

The  question  of  cheap  transportation  is  at  this  time  attracting  more  attention  than 
any  other  subject  connected  with  the  future  of  the  Pacific  Coast ;  and  this  may  well  be 
the  case  since  upon  the  cheap  carriage  of  the  products  of  our  soil  and  industry  to  the 
world's  markets  depends,  very  largely,  the  prosperity  of  our  people.  Railways  have  accom- 
plished wonders  in  this  direction,  considering  what  was  expected  of  them  in  years  gone 
by;  but  this  method  of  transportation  has  its  limitations  even  where  competition  exists. 

In  the  economy  of  modern  civilization  railways  perform  an  important  and  necessary 
function.  In  the  transportation  of  passengers,  mails,  specie,  and  perishable  property 
they  are  indispensable.  In  a  continental  country  like  ours  they  have  become  an  ab- 
solute necessity  to  our  national  life  in  time  of  peace,  and  equally  so,  as  a  means  of  de- 
fense, in  time  of  war.  it  has  been  remarked  that  no  railroad  manager  knows  at  how 
low  a  figure  freight  can  be  earned  by  steam  and  rail  until  he  tries  it  ;  of  course  he  would 
not  be  foolish  enough  to  try  it  unless  it  became  necessary  to  do  so.  The  Pacific  Coast 
has  important  waterways  which  are  competent  to  provide  for  a  great  part  of  her  internal 
transportation,  but  selfish  influences  and  public  apathy  have  permitted  these  natural 
highways  to  become  almost  worthless  in  many  instances. 

When  the  writer  arrived  at  San  Francisco  in  June  1850,  the  vessel  which  brought 
him  around  Cape  Horn  went  to  Sacramento  City  to  discharge,  sailing  up  the  river,  the 
water  of  which  was  then  so  clear  that  fish  could  be  seen  swimming  in  it.  Now,  flat-bot- 
tom, stern  wheel  steamers  make  their  way  there  with  difficulty  in  the  dry  season  and  it 
has  become  a  muddy  stream.  The  duty  of  deepening  and  improving  these  internal 
waterways  rests  upon  the  Government  of  the  Republic  ;  and  our  people  should  persist- 
ently work  to  secure  appropriations  for  this  purpose,  and  then  see  that  they  are  judic- 
iously expended.  Wherever  there  is  interior  water-transportation  freights  are  low,  every 
one  who  has  freight  to  transport  knows  this,  and  our  transportation  laws  recognize  it. 

One  of  the  most  striking  instances  of  the  effect  of  cheap  water-transportation  is  found 
at  the  St.  Mary's  Canal,  between  Lakes  Superior  and  Huron.  In  the  subsequent  paper 
herewith  presented,  "The  Nicaragua  Canal  and  the  Railroads"  the  work  of  this  water- 
way, its  enormous  capacity  and  economy,  are  fully  explained.  It  is  passing  25  per  cent. 
more  freight  annually  than  the  Suez  Canal,  and  is  indispensable  to  the  prosperity  of  that 
section  of  the  country.  Railways  have  there  been  found  incompetent  to  deal  alone  with 
the  problem  of  cost  which  controlled  the  question  of  its  development  and  prosperity. 

Leaving  the  question  of  internal  transportation,  we  proceed  to  consider  the  ques- 
tion of  ocean  carriage  where  it  competes  with  railways.  The  following  statement  of 
comparative  cost  was  furnished  me  by  the  late  William  J.  McAlpine,  an  eminent  civil 
engineer  and  an  unquestioned  authority  on  the  subject: 

COST  -I     I 'i:  \N~I-MI;  i  \  1 1.,\    rii:  TI>.\   I-KK  MM.K,  Kxn.rsivK  OK  CAPITAL  INVESTED. 

1.    Ocean  Yoyages  bj  tail  or  nKxiern  freight  steamers 1    mill 

•_'.     Shorter,  <>r  vny:i«r>  of  medium  length \\     u 

8.     Short  roasting  voyages "2       " 

4.     Canals  (excluding  ship  canals) 4       " 

Each  lock  i-  i-ipuil  to  otu>  additional   mile. 

">.     Smaller  canals  with  greater  lockage , 6       " 

&      Railways  with  favoring  gnuk->,  loadfl  in  direction  of  descending  grades,  in  exceis  of 

loads  ascending 8      " 

7.  Mail  ways,  heavy  grades  and  unfavorable  tonnage  movement    preponderating   in    one 

direction 15       « 

8.  Railways  of  usual  grades,  and  average  freight  movement  each  way 10       " 


35 


COLONEL   SEXOR    DON    EVARISTO  CAKA/n      M:<   I    \-MI>). 

The  President  ofjNicaragua  who  siu-ncd  ilu-  (';m;il  (  ''>ii<-«--i<>n. 


As  an  illustration  of  number  six:  On  the  Reading  Coal  Railroad  a  locomotive 
exerts  the  same  power  to  haul  a  train  of  one  hundred  loaded  cars  to  market  that  it  does 
to  haul  back  the  empty  cars,  but  this  is  presented  as  a  somewhat  exceptional  case. 

Since  the  above  table  was  formulated,  the  increase  in  size  of  ocean  steamships,  the 
adoption  of  triple  and  quadruple  expansion  engines  for  ocean  service,  and  other  im- 
provements therewith,  have  still  further  increased  the  disparity  between  the  cost  of 
transportation  by  land  and  sea.  There  has  also  been  improvement  in  the  manufacture 
of  locomotives,  but  not  to  the  extent  developed  in  the  latest  marine  engines. 

It  must  be  remembered,  also,  that  the  differences  herein  noted  are  exclusive  of 
interest  on  capital,  and,  when  this  enormous  difference  is  considered,  the  ocean  being  a 
free  highway,  and,  as  a  general  thing,  all  waterways  comparatively  so,  it  will  be  ap- 
parent how  impossible  it  is  for  the  most  favorably  located  railways  to  compete  with 
water  transportation. 

The  modern  improvements  in  marine  engines  applied  to  large  iron  steamships 
enable  them  to  compete  with  vessels  propelled  by  sail  alone,  especially  on  short  voy- 


36 

ages,  under  ordinary  conditions,  the  steamship  being  able  to  make  at  moderate  speed 
about  three  to  three  and  a  half  voyages  to  one  of  the  sailing  vessel  in  the  same  period 
and  over  the  same  course.  It  will  be  noticed,  consequently,  that  sailing  ships  have  the 
best  conditions  for  successfully  competing  with  steam  on  voyages  of  great  length — for 
instance  around  Cape  Horn  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  in  various  directions.  This 
is,  in  fact,  the  last  hold  of  sailing  ships  in  competition  with  steam  upon  the  great  oceans, 
and  even  this  is  being  successfully  contested.  It  may  be  further  remarked  that  the 
ocean  is  free  to  all,  and  the  expense  of  improving  internal  waterways  is  borne  by  the 
people  at  large,  through  their  Government. 

The  depth  of  water  at  the  principal  ports  of  the  world  has  placed  a  limit  on  th 
size  of  ships,  and  that  limit  appears  to  have  been  reached.  It  is  a  striking  fact  that 
ship  drawing  twenty-four  feet  of  water  is  too  large  for  three-quarters  of  the  harbors  o 
the  world.  The  trans-Atlantic  steamships  of  largest  tonnage  can  only  pass  Sandy  Hook 
and  Liverpool  bars  at  top  of  high  tide,  and  the  San  Francisco  bar  has  spots  on  it  of 
only  thirty  feet  depth,  on  which  deeply  laden  ships  have  occasionally  struck.  It  is 
possible  that  the  tonnage  may  be  still  further  moderately  increased  by  changing  the 
model,  but  the  limit  in  this  direction  is  small,  as  stability  is  a  desideratum  which  can- 
not be  ignored,  while  excessive  stability  must  be  avoided  to  attain  an  easy  movement 
in  a  sea  way. 

The  use  of  auxiliary  steam  with  full  sail  power  has  never  been  a  success  in  mer- 
cantile practice,  and,  as  marine  engines  have  been  improved  upon  and  adapted  to 
larger  ships,  has  been  almost  entirely  discarded.  But  the  use  of  sail  power  as  an 
auxiliary  can  never  be  economically  discarded.  It  is  the  cheapest  motive  power  that 
can  be  used  afloat,  and  while  it  has  been  fashionable  of  late  to  dispense  with  it  for 
naval  purposes,  the  fallacy  of  so  doing  is  acknowledged  by  many  naval  experts.  On 
the  long  voyages  by  steam,  especially  through  the  trade  wind  regions,  and  for  naval 
vessels  cruising  in  time  of  peace  either  full  or  auxiliary  sail  power  is  too  valuable  and 
economical  to  be  permanently  discarded,  being  an  element  of  safety  as  well  as  stability 
and  making  the  cruiser,  if  necessary,  independent  of  fuel  supply,  which  is  not  always 
obtainable  and  is  always  expensive. 

While  nature  thus  appears  to  have  placed  a  limit  on  the  tonnage  of  sea-going  ships, 
there  appears  no  known  limit  to  the  method  or  power  of  propulsion.  In  the  develop- 
ment of  electricity  we  may  look  for  a  motive  power  applicable  to  navigation.  Electric 
appear  to  be  a  certainty  in  the  near  future,  since  that  power  has  been  already 
successfully  applied  to  the  propulsion  of  small  vessels  for  interior  navigation.  Under 
any  circumstances  that  can  be  foreseen,  however,  water  transportation  will  continue  to 
be  the  cheapest  known  to  commerce,  and  in  the  development  of  maritime  commerce 
San  Francisco  must  make  its  mark  in  the  history  of  modern  cities.  Upon  its  maritime 

icrce  will  always  very  largely  depend  the  prosperity  of  the  Pacific  Coast.  Three- 
fifths  of  the  globe  is  covered  with  navigable  waters,  affording  a  basis  of  cheap  trans- 
portation, inviting  the  energy  and  the  skill  of  mankind.  Navigation  has  opened  the 
path  to  empire,  and  its  development  creates  a  brave  and  hardy  race,  ready  to  uphold 
the  liberties  of  the  nation  and  the  honor  of  its  flag. 

As  an  example  of  the  latest  practice  in  ocean  navigation  by  steam,  the  following 
examples  of  first-class  passenger  and  freight  steamships  are  presented. 

A  typical  British  cargo  steamship,  now  running  between  New  York  and  England, 


• 


37 

of  8, 3oo  register  tons,  carries  10,000  tons  dead  weight  when  fully  laden,  at  a  round 
voyage  expense  of  $26,000,  or  $1.30  cost  per  ton  across  the  Atlantic  ;  3165  knots,  on 
an  average  speed  of  13  knots  (faster  than  the  most  economical  speed,  which  may  be 
placed  at  9^  to  10  knots  per  hour).  She  should  do  better  on  the  smooth  water 
voyage  through  the  Canal. 

The  distance  from  San  Francisco  to  Brito  is  2695  miles  ;  through  the  Canal  169*710 
miles  ;  from  San  Juan  del  Norte,  the  Atlantic  terminus,  to  New  York  2060  miles. 
Total  distance  4925  miles.  Allowing  28  hours  to  pass  the  Canal,  this  steamship  would 
make  the  trip  in  i610/-M  days.  This  makes  a  cost  of  $2. 02  per  ton  of  2240  pounds, 
which,  with  the  toll  now  charged  at  Suez  ($1.85  per  ton),  will  make  $3.87  per  ton  from 
San  Francisco  to  New  York.  A  lower  Canal  toll  or  a  decreased  speed,  say  to  10 
knots,  would  still  further  reduce  the  cost.  This  steamship  will  carry  in  weight  or 
measurement,  at  ship's  option,  as  generally  laden,  12,000  tons,  which  reduces  cost  to 
$3.53  per  long  ton,  freight  and  Suez  Canal  toll,  from  San  Francisco  to  New  York  in 
i6"V-M  days.  The  steamships  "  Manitoba"  &T\&  "Massachusetts"  of  5,673  tons  gross  and 
3,654  tons  net  register,  steam  an  average  of  12%  knots  on  60  tons  coal  per  day  and 
carry,  including  coal,  7,500  dead  weight,  with  round  voyage  expenses  of  $20,000, 
giving  nearly  as  good  results.  An  English  freight  steamship  is  now  being  built  with  a 
measurement  capacity  of  17,750  tons,  of  which  approximately  1,000  tons  will  be 
occupied  for  coal,  leaving  an  enormous  freight  capacity,  which  will  make  her  relatively 
much  less  costly  to  operate  than  the  examples  cited  and  the  cheapest  cargo  carrier 
known  to  commerce.  This  ship,  however,  will  dra\v  when  fully  laden  28  feel,  and, 
although  she  would  pass  the  Canal,  the  navigable  depth  of  which  is  to  be  30  feet, 
a  ship  so  large  is  debarred  from  entry  into  many  important  ports  of  the  world. 

The  high-speed  passenger  steamships  now  crossing  the  Atlantic  could  make  the 
Canal  voyage  from  San  Francisco  to  New  York  in  eleven  days,  including  time  allowed 
for  passage  through  the  Canal.  But  the  transatlantic  round  voyage  expenses  of  these 
"ocean  flyers"  is  $75,000  to  $80,000,  and  they  are  not  intended  to  carry  cheaply, 
time  being  the  essence  of  their  construction. 

The  examples  given  above  are  authentic,  and  amply  illustrate  what  the  Canal  can 
do  for  the  producers  and  merchants  of  the  Pacific  Coast.  It  is  idle  to  talk  of  land 
transportation  on  any  such  costs  as  above  stated,  and  there  are  possibilities  of  still 
further  decrease  in  cost  of  operating  cargo  steamships  ;  indeed,  with  a  speed  not 
exceeding  10  knots,  these  same  ships  can  reduce  the  cost  given  above  somewhat,  and 
quite  largely  reduce  it  with  a  speed  of  9  knots  per  hour.  It  is  to  be  noted  also  that 
most  of  the  cheap  and  bulky  freight  does  not  require  high  speed,  cost  controlling  the 
question. 

The  ocean  is  God's  great  highway — nature's  cheap  transportation  route  ;  an  abund- 
ance of  water  but  no  watered  stocks,  no  tracks  to  maintain,  no  switches  to  be  left  open 
—its  use  free  to  all  on  equal  terms  ! 

The  discussion  of  this  branch  of  the  subject  may  be  fitly  terminated  with  a  table  of 
comparative  distances,  proving  the  saving  made  by  the  Nicaragua  Canal.  No  other 
artificial  waterway  on  the  globe,  now  or  to  be  constructed,  can  make  so  favorable  a 
showing  :  the  table  is  important  both  for  study  and  reference. 


TABLE   OF    DISTAN<  I>.    IN    NAITICAT,    MILES,    BETWEEN     COMMERCIAL    PORTS   OF     THE    WORLD,    AND 
1'ISTANCES  SAVED   BY   THE   NICARAGUA   CANAL. 


Compiled  from  data  furnished  by  the  United  States  Hj'drographic  Office.    Length  of  Sailing  Routes  approximate  only 


I'.KIWK.KN 

Around  Cape 
Horn  for 
Sailing  Vessels. 

Via  Magellan  for 
full-powered 
Steam  Vessels. 

Via  Cape  of  Good 
Hope. 

Via  Nicaragua 
Canal. 

Advantage  over 
Sailing  Route. 

Advantage  over 
Steam  Route. 

Xew  York  and  San  Francisco.. 

15  660 

13,174 

4,907 

10753 

8267 

"              '      PiM'et  Sound   

13,935 

5665 

8270 

"             <     Sitka  

14439 

6,177 

8  262 

"             '     Bering  Strait  

15,705 

7402 

8303 

1     Acapuico  
'     Ma/atian  
'     Hong  Kong  

11,555 
12,037 

13,750 

3,045 
3,675 
10,692 

3058 

8510 
8,3^2 

15,217 

9,227 

5990 

Melbourne  

13,760 

1  2,860 

12,830 

9,862 

3898 

2998 

•'             "     Auckland    XX           

12  600 

11  599 

14069 

8462 

4  138 

3  137 

"                  "       Honolulu,  S.  Is  

15,480 

13,290 

6,417 

7,063 

6,873 

"     Callao  

9,640 

3,744 

5896 

"     Guayaquil  
"     Valparaiso  

9420 

10,300 
8440 



3,227 
5014 

4406 

7,073 
3426 

New  Orleans  and  San  Francisco. 

16000 

13  539 

4  147 

11^53 

9392 

Acapuico  

11  920 

2285 

9  635 

"         Ma/.atlan  

12402 

2915 

9487 

Callao  

10,005 

2,984 

7021 

Valparaiso  

8,805 

4254 

4551 

i  >ool  and  San  Francisco  

15620 

13,494 

7  627 

7  993 

5867 

"     Acapuico  

11,875 

5765 

6,110 

"  •         "     Mazatlan  

12,357 

6395 

5  962 

"     Auckland  

12  130 

11  !>1  9 

13357 

11  182 

948 

737 

"     <i  uava.mil.... 

lo  r,4>o 

5  947 

4  673 

>    allao  

"     Valparaiso  

9380 

9,960 
8  760 



6,464 
7  734 

1  646 

3.496 
1  026 

"     Honolulu  

13610 

9  137 

4473 

"      Y«.k..li:.i,.:i    . 

14505 

11  947 

2  558 

b  of  Canal,   in  Xautical   Mill-*.  .  . 
tern   I'ort  of  Canal...  . 
pool  "  "  M     ... 

Hamburg  "  '  « 

"     .'.'. 

New  Orlcan  '•  •• 


147 
2,060 
4,780 
5,l«7 
4,691 
1,300 


Western  Port  of  Canal  to  San  Francisco,  2,700 

Portland 3,345 

"             "           Pnget  Sound  . .  3,458 

Valparaiso....  2,807 

Callao 1,537 

Yokohama....  7,020 


THE  NICARAGUA  CANAL  ANI>  THE  RAILROADS. 

It  will  be  conceded  that  the  managers  of  the  railways  of  the  United  States  are  among 
the  most  able  and  intelligent  men  in  the  Republic,  indeed  the  most  prominent  among 
the  fraternity  have  few  equals  in  the  world.  The  criticism  of  any  policy  adopted  by 
corporations  controlled  by  such  a  class  of  our  citizens,  demands  a  confidence  born  of 
conviction  and  patient  inquiry.  I  should  hardly  dare  attempt  it  but  for  the  anecdote 
stating  that  when  VVestinghouse  visited  Commodore  Vanderbilt  to  induce  the  adoption 
of  his  system  of  air  brakes,  he  was  met  with  the  assertion  from  the  veteran  steamship  and 
railroad  millionaire  that  "he  had  no  time  to  spend  with  fools  !"  No  brighter  intellect  has 
developed  in  the  transportation  interests  of  our  country  than  Cornelius  Vanderbilt,  al- 
though Mr.  Huntington  and  Jay  Gould  may  be  classed  as  his  peers.  If  then,  so  able  a 
man  could  make  so  pronounced  a  mistake,  I  may  be  excused  if  I  respectfully  criticize 
another  point  in  the  policy  of  our  main  East  and  West  railroad  managers.  I  recall  that 
the  late  Count  De  Lesseps  said  to  me  in  1880 — "  Captain,  great  Engineers  make  great 
mistakes  and  little  Engineers  make  litth  mistakes"  and  he  added  with  a  characteristic 
shrugging  of  his  shoulders,  "  Captain  Eads  is  a  great  Engineer  !"  It  is  the  weakness  of 
humanity  to  err,  and  men  of  great  affairs  make  great  mistakes  because  they  handle  great 
interests. 

That  cynical  philosopher  Carlyle,  remarks  that  "  the  course  of  human  action 
be  safely  predicated  upon  the  fact  of  human  selfishness."  If  this  be  true  of  individuals, 
no  less  can  be  expected  from  corporate  policy.  But  if  corporate  policy  be  proven  in 
error,  and  conviction  follows  the  argument,  that  policy  will  be  changed.  I  can  at  least 
present  such  argument  as  appears  to  me  conclusive,  and  request  for  it  a  fair  consider- 
ation. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  only  active  opponents  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal  are  the 
Railway  systems  running  East  and  West.  Legislation  which  would,  ere  this,  have 
secured  "  an  American  canal  under  American  control, "has  been  prevented  by  their  in- 
fluence in  Congress.  The  managers  of  these  Railway  systems  entertain  the  idea  that 
the  Canal  will  create  a  competition  in  freights  which  they  desire  to  avoid,  or  at  least, 
postpone,  as  long  as  possible.  Indeed,  the  future  competition  is  a  certainty,  but  I 
hope  to  demonstrate  that  the  assured  compensation  far  outweighs  it,  and  that  the  best 
friends  of  the  Canal  should  be  the  Railway  managers  who  have  so  actively  opposed 
its  construction.  While  the  cost  of  water  transportation  compares  with  that  by  land 
in  the  ratio  of  from  one  to  five  to  one  to  ten,  in  accordance  with  the  conditions  of 
each  case,  water  transportation  has  its  restrictions,  and  cannot  divert  from  the  com- 
peting railway,  passenger  or  freight  business  demanding  quick  transit,  while  it  is  a 
wonderful  developer  of  that  class  of  transportation,  as  I  shall  endeavor  to  prove.  Bancroft  Lib* 

A  most  conclusive  instance  of  this  is  the  history  of  the  development  of  the  Lake 
Superior  region  in  connection  with  theSault  St.  Marie  Canal,  uniting  the  great  Lakes. 
When  that  Canal  was  opened,  the  railroad  companies  in  the  vicinity  feared  a  serious  diver- 
sion of  their  carrying  trade.  The  result  was  exactly  the  opposite.  The  cheap  freights 
by  water  through  the  canal  rapidly  developed  the  surrounding  region,  population  in- 
creased, mines  were  opened,  new  farms  cultivated,  new  towns  founded,  and  the  railway 


<    "ll-lll    <  M'|;IT;||.     I!r|>llUir 


\\II.I.IA.M    l.. 

N  i  r;i  r;i^  l|;i  .    In   tllf    \V(-U>ril    Sllllc- 

<>t'   t  In-  I  "iiiicd  St.  -it. 


TtTl'i  t  nl'i  r- 


facilities  proved  so  inadequate  to  the  development  that  they  have  been  duplicated,  and 
in  some  instances  quadrupled.  Development  of  this  character  means  a  great  increase 
of  population,  and  the  carriage  of  passengers  pays  a  railroad  far  better  than  freight.  I 
may  truthfully  state  that  millions  of  tons  of  ores  that  have  passed  through  the  Sault  St. 
Marie  ('anal  for  Cleveland  and  other  points  south,  for  reduction,  would  now  be  lying 
in  their  native  ore  beds  but  for  the  cheap  water  transportation  which  permitted  their 
profitable  handling.  So  rapidly  has  this  water-borne  commerce  augmented  that  in  1894, 
during  the  period  that  the  St.  Mary's  Canal  was  free  of  ice,  a  greater  tonnage  passed 
through  it  than  through  the  Suez  Canal,  making  it  to-day  the  World's  greatest  artificial 
waterway  !  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  railway  companies  could  have  better  afforded  to 


have  built  the  canal  than  to  have  remained  without   its  aid  in  the  develo;  tlu  ir 

tributary  territory  !     Incidentally  I  may  also  state  that  this  rana  Aiding  proof  of 

the  ability  of  locks  to  handle  an  enormous  tonnage  with  economy.  The  immense  tonnage 
passes  through  the  St.  Mary's  Canal  locks  by  day  and  at  night,  with  the  aid  of  electric 
lights,  practically  without  accident  or  delay,  and  the  pressure  for  transit  has  so  increased 
that  the  United  States  Government  is  now  constructing  a  new  lock  to  accommodate 
shipping  which  will  be  opened  in  1896,  making  the  second  large  lock  to  be  operated  in 
overcoming  the  same  difference  in  level. 

Returning  to  the  main  question  before  us,  we  have  the  Erie  Canal,  which,  although 
free  to  navigation,  has  so  aided  the  development  of  the  territory  tributary  to  the  railways 
running  parallel  thereto,  that  we  now  have  a  double  track  road  on  each  side,  crowded 
with  traffic  ! 

These  two  instances  would  appear  to  be  conclusive,  but  they  could  be  multiplied 
in  less  conspicuous  instances  did  space  permit. 

The  history  of  the  Southern  Pacific  Company  illustrates  the  cheapness  of  water 
transportation  in  another  way.  Although  controlling  a  railway  line  across  the  Continent, 
the  very  able  gentleman  at  the  head  of  this  great  corporation  bought  out  the  Morgan 
Steamship  Company,  operating  between  his  gulf  terminus  at  New  Orleans  and  New 
York,  under  exceptional  disadvantages  of  ocean  navigation,  through  the  Florida  Stream. 
By  its  aid  he  has  practically  dictated  the  traffic  policy  of  all  the  transcontinental  rail- 
ways except  the  subsidized  Canadian  Pacific  Railway,  and  even  this  latter  cannot  at 
times,  safely  disregard  his  demands  !  So  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  no  railroad  manager 
claims  that  the  Morgan  Steamship  Line  injures  the  traffic  of  the  railways  between  New 
Orleans  and  New  York  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  supplements  their  usefulness. 

That  the  Nicaragua  Canal  will  divert  heavy  freight  from  the  overland  railways  we 
may  be  assured  ;  otherwise  it  would  little  benefit  our  people  to  decrease  the  ocean  car- 
nage to  the  markets  of  Europe  and  our  Eastern  seacoast  nearly  ten  thousand  miles.  It 
is  in  the  rapid  development  of  the  entire  Pacific  Coast  that  the  compensation  would 
result.  The  Pacific  Coast  of  the  United  States  is  now  isolated  from  the  markets  for 
our  products.  It  cannot  be  expected  that  over  two  mountain  chains  and  over  three 
thousand  miles  the  locomotives  can  compete  with  the  five  thousand  ton  steamer  that 
carries  in  one  cargo  the  load  of  333  cars  of  30,000  pounds  each.  The  products  of  our 
Coast  are  mostly  bulky  and  relatively  cheap  ;  they  must  have  very  low  freight  to  enable 
them  to  compete  in  the  world's  markets  and  leave  anything  to  the  producer.  That  the 
producers  of  these  products  have  generally  nothing  left  under  the  present  conditions 
after  paying  freight  and  charges,  is  too  well  known  to  need  proof.  The  Sacramento 
Valley  which  has  absolutely  decreased  in  population  and  in  the  number  of  landowners 
during  the  past  fifteen  years,  is  a  striking  proof  of  this,  for  there  is  no  more  fertile  valley 
in  the  world.  The  small  landowners  could  not  live  :  they  have  been  foreclosed  or  have 
sold  out,  and  the  land  has  generally  reverted  to  larger  holdings.  Certainly,  no  condition 
can  be  more  unpromising  to  the  railways  in  that  region.  And  this  condition  is  obtain- 
ing elsewhere  ;  relief  must  come  or  we  shall  untimately  have  a  few  large  landowners 
(the  railway  companies  among  them)  and  a  scant  population  to  patronize  railroads  or 
merchants. 

Stagnation  now  rules  the  industrial  interests  of  the  Pacific  Coast.  Our  lumber 
industry  is  practically  at  a  stand  still  and  has  been  unremunerative  for  some  years. 
Our  wheat  industry  is  dead  so  far  as  profits  in  the  export  trade  are  concerned.  Our 


42 

fruit  industry  remains  remunerative  in  exceptional  cases,  but  before  the  cheap  water- 
way to  the  Atlantic  can  be  completed  will  arrive  at  the  same  condition.  Indeed, 
horticulturists  are  complaining  bitterly  of  high  freights  to  Eastern  markets  and  demand- 
ing relief.  Our  lands  are  neglected  because  it  does  not  generally  pay  to  cultivate  them, 
our  merchants  find  their  clientage  decreasing ;  our  manufacturers  have  in  many 
instances  closed  up  their  factories  and  discharged  their  workmen. 

If  this  be  the  result,  after  twenty-five  years  of  direct  railway  connection  with  th< 
East,  well  may  our  people  look  for  a  remedy  in  different  conditions.  And  these  con- 
ditions will  certainly  follow  the  construction  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal,  without  injury  to 
our  present  inland  transportation  interests.  Not  only  will  the  Canal  give  us  a  free 
outlet  for  our  products,  but  it  will  open  the  highway  for  a  desirable  European  immigra- 
tion. I  write  desirable  advisedly,  for  nothing  can  be  so  objectionable  as  the  flooding  of 
this  country  with  the  communists,  anarchists  and  lazzaroni  of  Europe.  It  will  cost 
more  to  come  here  than  to  go  to  our  Eastern  seaports,  and  we  shall,  it  is  to  be 
presumed,  receive  the  best  grade  of  immigrants.  But  this  question  is  not  germain  to 
the  purpose  of  this  paper  and  may  be  dismissed  with  the  assertion  that  it  is  high  time 
to  legislate  for  our  protection  therein.  It  is  in  the  advent  of  an  increasing  population 
and  the  resultant  industries  that  the  railway  systems,  now  antagonistic  to  the  Canal, 
will  find  their  compensation  for  a  diversion  of  a  part  of  their  through  traffic.  Their 
managers  admit  that  the  through  haul  has  always  been  less  remunerative  than  the  short 
haul,  and  that  its  adjustment  meets  with  increasing  difficulties  every  year.  New  and 
powerful  competitors  are  coming  into  the  field.  The  subsidized  Canadian  Pacific,  the 
Atchison  &  Santa  Fe,  the  Northern  Pacific,  the  Panama  and  Tehuantepec  Isthmus,  the 
(iuatemala  Northern  and  the  Cape  Horn  route,  will  all  compete  for  through  business. 
Even  the  Suez  Canal  is  a  disturbing  factor  in  the  overland  carriage  of  the  products  of 
China  and  Japan.  With  the  completion  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal  the  policy  of  our 
Pacific  Coast  railroads  will  necessarily  change.  The  local  haul  to  and  from  tide-water 
will  have  precedence,  and  Pacific  Coast  ports  will  become  distributing  points  for  the 
products  of  China  and  Japan.  Instead  of  competing  with  the  Suez  Canal  for  this  trade  at 
New  York  to  such  an  extent  that  the  trade  of  San  Francisco  in  the  same  products  is  dis- 
criminated against,  our  railways  will  contest  it  by  distribution  eastward  from  the  seaboard 
of  the  Pacific.  The  flow  of  Asiatic  commerce  to  the  Atlantic,  passing  San  Francisco  at  its 
very  doors,  on  the  shortest  ocean  route,  it  will,  with  San  Diego,  become  a  port  of  call 
for  transpacific  steamships,  their  passengers  and  a  part  of  their  freight  swelling  the 
income  of  our  railroads,  while  these  same  steamships  will  fill  their  vacant  cargo  space 
with  Pacific  Coast  products,  hauled  to  tide  water  by  rail.  Under  these  conditions  even 
the  railways  eastward  from  the  Missouri  River  will  benefit  more  largely  by  the  increased 
population  and  development  of  the  Pacific  Slope  than  can  be  lost  by  them  on  any 
diverted  traffic.  It  is  in  fact  an  impossibility  that  any  railway  will  be  injured  by  the 
conditions  alluded  to  and  which  will  result  from  the  completion  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal. 

The  Pacific  Coast  of  the  United  States  is  in  a  transition  state.  The  isolation  of 
pioneer  days  has  passed.  We  are  being  brought  face  to  face  with  the  competition  of 
the  whole  world.  It  is  our  railroads  that  have  brought  us  to  this  condition,  and 
they  cannot  ignore  the  result.  We  cannot  stop  half  way — that  policy  has  been  proven 

A  steamship  from  Yokohama  to  the  Atlantic,  via  Canal,  lengthens  her  voyage  only  91  miles  by 
calling  at  San  Francisco,  and  from  Hongkong  to  the  Atlantic  lengthens  it  only  20  miles. 


43 

ruinous.     We  must  throw  down  all  the  barriers  impeding  the  cheapest  intercourse,  and 
make  our  fight  for  progress  on  the  principles  of  competition.     This  the  Nicaragua  < 
will  do  for  us.     The  ocean  is  a  free  highway  given  us  by  an  Almighty  hand  ;  no  right  of 
way,  no  wear  and  tear,  no  bonded  indebtedness  for  track  and  stations,  no  depreciation. 

"  Not  so  Thou  ! 
Same  as  creations  dawn  beheld,  Thou  rollest  now  ! " 

We  can  no  longer  endure  the  condition  of  isolation  which  has  induced  an  arrested 
development.  We  need  a  greater  population,  small  land  holdings  with  more  owners; 
we  must  have  a  shorter  cheap  water  route  for  our  lumber,  our  cereals  and  other  pro- 
ducts, which  the  railways  cannot  haul  across  the  continent  and  thence  ship  to  Europe 
with  profit.  An  increase  of  desirable  population  is  an  absolute  necessity  to  ourjprosper- 
ity.  It  is  not  the  half-million  in  San  Francisco  but  the  millions  of  contented  residents 
in  our  great  interior  that  we  need  the  most.  The  city  of  San  Francisco  is  already 
larger  than  the  population  in  its  tributary  interior  warrants,  and  our  great  seaport  will 
grow  when  conditions  warrant ;  indeed,  when  its  wharves  are  crowded  with  the  steam- 


ships  from  Atlantic  ports  it  will  become  the  commercial  center  of  the  Pacific  Coast— 
that  it  must  become  under  any  supposable  conditions,  for  the  impress  of  an  Almighty 
hand  rests  with  approval  upon  our  unequaled  position  as  a  seaport,  and  upon  the  noble 
rivers  and  fertile  valleys  which  are  tributary  to  it. 

Will  the  development  which  I  have  imperfectly  delineated  inflict  injury  upon  our 
railway  interests?  How  vain  such  a  conclusion!  California  could  better  afford  to 
pay  for  the  Nicaragua  Canal  herself  than  be  without  it,  and  our  railway  systems  can 
better  afford  to  aid  its  speedy  construction  than  to  oppose  it. 

During  the  five  years  necessary  for  construction  the  imperative  necessity  for  the 
Nicaragua  Canal  will  have  been  accentuated,  and  when  it  is  in  active  operation  our 
railway  systems  will  regard  it  as  an  ally  in  development  and  transportation,  while  our 
people  will  refer  to  the  present  period,  prior  to  the  Canal,  as  the  arrested  development 
which,  like  a  black  cloud  hung  over  our  beautiful  Pacific  Coast  to  be  succeeded  by  the 
sunshine  of  such  healthy  progress  and  prosperity  as  we  have  never  known  ! 
try  has  here  an  empire,  with  products  and  climate  so  diversified  that  they  excite  the 


44 

wonderful  admiration  of  close  observers.  The  bane  of  isolation  is  gradually  leaving  it, 
and  when  the  glorious  day  arrives  that  the  first  American  steamship  floats  upon  the 
Inland  Sea  of  Nicaragua,  laden  with  California  products,  our  emancipation  will  be  com- 
plete !  It  will  inaugurate  the  period  of  increased  population  and  increasing  railroad 
earnings,  not  only  for  Pacilc  Coast  railroads  but  for  all  the  iron  highways  reaching 
toward  the  Atlantic. 

The  mistaken  policy  which  opposes  the  elimination  of  nearly  half  the  earth's  cir- 
cumference from  the  navigable  distance  to  the  great  markets  of  Europe  and  the  Eastern 
seaboard,  will  have  become  ancient  history,  to  which  allusion  will  only  be  made  as  a 
proof  of  the  fallacy  of  human  judgment,  even  among  the  most  able  minds  of  the  age  ! 

It  is,  indeed  not  an  easy  matter  to  predict  all  the  changes  which  will  result  from 
the  opening  of  the  great  inter-oceanic  highway.  It  requires  the  technical  knowledge 
of  a  navigator,  the  commercial  acumen  of  an  experienced  merchant,  and  the  prescience 
of  a  wise  statesman  to  forecast  the  result  of  such  a  change  in  the  lines  of  communica- 
tion between  the  nationsof  the  earth,  but  of  one  thing  we  may  be  certain  —  the  elimination 
of  ten  thousand  miles  of  navigation  from  the  longest  ocean  route  on  the  globe  cannot 
result  otherwise  than  in  a  momentous  change  for  the  better,  for  time  and  distance  are 
controlling  factors  in  the  prosperity  of  the  human  race,  and  the  period  of  national 
isolation  has  passed. 

I  have  not  alluded  to  the  value  of  the  Canal  to  our  country  and  to  the  other 
nations  of  the  world,  especially  to  the  republics  of  the  American  continent.  Who  will 
deny  the  prestige,  the  political  and  military  advantage,  to  the  Great  Republic,  the 
development  of  Central  American  commerce  by  which  our  people  will  largely  benefit, 
the  increase  of  our  mercantile  marine,  "the  Star  of  Empire"  marching  Westward! 
These  considerations  have  been  apart  from  my  main  argument,  and  if  I  have  convinced 
the  reader  that  the  Nicaragua  Canal  will  become  the  ally  and  the  complement  of 
American  railroads,  instead  of  a  competitor  to  be  dreaded,  my  object  will  have  been 
accomplished.  So  bright  an  intellect  as  William  H.  Seward  has  remarked  that  "the 
Pacific  Ocean  is  to  be  the  scene  of  man's  greatest  achievements."  In  this  great  history 
of  the-future  our  Pacific  railroads  will  work  hand  in  hand  with  the  Canal,  the  thought 
of  adverse  interests  will  vanish,  and  a  common  interest  in  development,  with  increased 
commerce  and  prosperity,  will  supplant  it.  And  this  change  of  sentiment  will  do 
honor  to  the  great  minds  that  first  admit  the  facts  which  they  cannot  prevent,  unless 
they  make  the  world  move  backward  ! 


MAI'    OF    TJIK    WOULD.    SJIO\V1N<;    J.iXKS    OK    X  A  Vl<  i  A'l  K  )N    TMKoff.II    TIIK    M<    \ll\«.l    \    <    \N\I.. 

The  shortest  practicable  route  from  Brito  to  Yokohama •    7.H5 

BritotoSan  Francisco 

San  Francisco  to  Yokohama '. l.-'tfG 

Therefore  the  distance  from  Brito  to  Yokohama,  via  Snu  Fram-isco,  is 

Therefore  excess  of  route  via  <an  Francisco  over  shortest  practicable  roate,  is 

Brito  to  Honolulu 

Honolulu  to  Yokohama 3,400 

Shortest  practicable  route  from  Brito  to  Yokohama,  via  Honolulu  

Therefore  excess  of  route  via  Honolulu  over  route  via  San  Francisco,  is 

The  shortest  practicable  route  from  Brito  to  Hongkong 

BritotoSan  Francisco 

San  Francisco  to  Hongkong 8,ObO 

Therefore  the  distance  from  Brito  10  Hongkong,  via  San  Francisco,  is 

Therefore  excess  of  route  via  San  Francisco  over  shortest  practicable  route,  is .        W 

k  tott, 

Brito  to  Honolulu 4,i'JO 

Honolulu  to  Hongkong 4,917 

Therefore  the  distance  from  Brito  to  Hongkong,  via  Honolulu,  is 

Therefore  the  excess  of  route  via  Honolulu  over  route  via  San  Francisco,  ;s „ 

The  conditions  as  to  the  distances  in  Trans-Pacific  Navigation  apply  approximately  to  all  fulled  Stales  Pacific 
Coast  Ports. 


46 


PERSONAL. 

In  1858,  when  an  officer  of  the  United  States  Mail  Steamship  Company's  steamer 
"  George  Law,"  I  first  visited  San  Juan  DelNorte,  the  Atlantic  terminus  ofthe  Nicaragua 
Canal.  In  1862,  when  commanding  the  clipper  ship  "  White  Falcon"  of  New  York,  I 
visited  its  Pacific  terminus,  and  from  San  Juan  del  Sur  went  to  Virgin  Bay,  when  I  first 
beheld  the  magnificent  inland  sea  of  Nicaragua.  The  year  1863  found  me  at  Panama, 
as  agent  for  the  Marshall  O.  Robert's  Line  of  steamships  between  New  York  and  San 
Francisco.  I  had  coal-laden  vessels  arriving  at  Aspinwall  (Colon),  and  during  the  year 
I  lived  at  Panama  went  over  the  Panama  railroad  twice  a  week.  In  1864,  I  took  com- 
mand of  the  steamship  America  t  and  remained  in  her  two  years  and  eight  months  running 
between  San  Francisco  and  Nicaragua.  I  was  then  appointed  general  agent  in  charge 
of  the  Nicaragua  transit  for  the  Central  American  Transit  Company  and  the  North 
American  Steamship  Company,  of  which  my  old  and  valued  friend,  William  H.  Webb 
of  New  York,  was  president.  I  practically  lived  on  the  line  of  the  Canal,  passing  over 
it  during  nearly  three  years,  by  night  and  day,  in  steamers,  boats,  and  canoes.  The 
entire  canal  line  is  as  familiar  to  me  as  California  street.  During  all  these  years  I 
was  acquiring  information  in  regard  to  the  canalization  of  the  American  Isthmus. 
The  reader  may  judge  by  the  opportunities  of  personal  investigation  which  I  have 
been  able  to  avail  of,  how  thoroughly  I  have  acquainted  myself  with  the  subject. 
So  when,  in  the  course  of  events,  I  engaged  in  mercantile  pursuits  at  San  Fran- 
cisco, and  the  Canal  question  became  a  matter  of  public  interest,  I  was  able  to 
take  it  up  intelligently  and  with  a  full  appreciation  of  its  great  importance  to  San 
1  rancisco,  the  Pacific  Coast,  to  the  Great  Republic  and  to  all  the  commercial 
world.  Thus,  while  others  may  properly  claim  the  initiative  on  the  Canal  question 
from  a  political  and  military  standpoint,  I  can  properly  claim  to  have  first  introduced 
the  Canal  <fiiestion  to  tJit  merchants  of  the  United  States  from  a  commercial  standpoint. 
The  views  which  were  often  considered  visionary,  are  at  this  day  universally  accepted 
as  practical,  and  today  the  Canal  is  the  most  popular  enterprise  before  the  American 
people.  Already  I  see  the  reward  of  unwearied,  and,  on  this  Coast,  until  recently 
almost  unaided  effort,  born  ofthe  conviction  that  the  Nicaragua  Canal  will  solve  for  my 
adopted  City  and  State  the  great  desideratum  of  cheap  transportation  to  the  markets  of 
the  world.  I  am  so  confident  that  I  shall  go  from  ocean  to  ocean  over  the  Nicaragua 
Canal  that  I  no  longer  permit  myself  to  be  annoyed  at  impediments  and  delays — the 
Canal  is  a  certainty  of  the  near  future.  There  can  be  no  more  satisfactory  record 
than  thus  to  have  made  my  years  useful  to  my  fellow  citizens,  to  the  Republic  of  Nica- 
ragua which  has  honored  me  with  its  confidence,  to  the  Great  Republic,  and  to  the 
commerce  of  the  world  ! 

WII.I.IAM  L.  MERRY. 


